Desicritics Category: Politics: Peace

Israel's Gaza Offensive

Vinod Joseph — Tue, 6 Jan 2009 12:18:10 EST

I believe that the air attacks being carried out by Israel on various targets in the Gaza Strip and the incursion by the Israeli army into the Gaza Strip are justified. I also believe that these air attacks and land offensive will serve no purpose at all, other than help Ehud Barak and the Labour Party in the forthcoming Israeli elections.

Ever since the cease fire between Hamas and Israel came to an end on 19 December 2008, Israel has been targeted by Hamas which started to fire around 80 rockets per day into Israel. Most of the rockets did not cause much damage and so far, only a handful of Israelis have died as a result. However, the number of people killed in Gaza has exceeded five hundred. Clearly the Israeli response to the rocket attacks is not proportionate. Why then do I say that Israeli is justified in its actions?

Imagine for a moment that you own a fertile piece of land in a desolate part of the world. You land adjoins a barren piece of land. A tall barbed wire fence separates your land and the barren land. The people who own the barren land don’t like your presence in the neighbourhood. They have a nasty habit of throwing stones into your land, a few stones every day. Mostly they don’t do any damage, but once a month or so, a worker in your land gets hit by a stone. Once in a while, your neighbours cut through the barbed wire fence and creep into your land at night and uproot a few fruit trees before returning to their barren land, all this in order to make you abandon your fertile property. How should you respond? If your response has to be strictly proportionate, you can only throw stones into your neighbour’s barren land, something which will distress your neighbour a lot less than you are distressed by the stones thrown into your land. You can also creep into your neighbour’s land at night and uproot his fruit trees, except that your neighbour does not have any fruit trees! So, you post guards on the periphery of your land, mount powerful search lights at certain vantage points and instruct your guards to shoot dead anyone caught in the act of throwing stones into your land. Intruders who enter your fertile land are also to be locked up for a year before they are released. Once this new policy comes into effect, your guards do manage to kill a few stone throwers and catch a few intruders, but the stone throwing and intrusions don’t cease. This is mainly because there is a total difference in values between you and your neighbour and your neighbour is willing to sacrifice the lives of his people in order to cause trouble for you. He just does not want you in the neighbourhood, though you have every right to be there. Soon the number of fruit trees you lose to your neighbour’s men goes up. Your workers start to quit. You start making a loss. Unless you manage to stop the stone throwing and the uprooting of fruit trees, you will have to vacate the neighbourhood. What do you do then? There is no police force worth the name in your part of the world. You have no choice but to send a team of armed men into your neighbour’s land and capture or kill everyone who has thrown stones or intruded into your land and teach your neighbour such a lesson that he does not try to harm your property ever again.

Now imagine for a moment that you acquired your fertile piece of land after a prolonged litigation. You won the legal dispute and the loser was your neighbour who owns the adjacent barren piece of land. They are many in your town who say that the court ruling was unfair, though the bulk of the local residents support the judicial ruling and are happy for you to occupy your piece of land. Does this additional piece of information make you change your mind? Do you now think that the neighbour has the right to throw stones into your land or intrude into your land and uproot your fruit trees? The answer is a clear No. Instead, what your neighbour ought to do if unhappy with the court ruling is appeal to a higher court. If further appeal is not possible, your neighbour ought to get public opinion on his side and in the meantime, try and make his barren piece of land as fertile as possible.

Israel is in the position of the owner of the fertile land. Its neighbour is Hamas, an organisation whose charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Islamic State. I have always believed that the creation of Israel through an UN resolution was absolutely fair. If you believe that the creation of Israel by the UN in 1948 was correct, it naturally follows that Israel has the right to defend its territory and pre-empt any possible attack that may pose an existential threat to Israel. I have many good friends who ardently believe that the creation of Israel was unfair. All those friends tell me that Israel’s Gaza offensive is totally unjustified.

It must be admitted, most of what followed after the fair and legal creation of Israel was neither fair nor legal. Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and its Arab minority has almost always been very, very unjust. In particular, I don’t think that Israel was justified in placing an economic blockade on the Gaza Strip in reaction to Hamas’s election victory. Though no one likes the idea of fundamentalists of the Hamas variety on their door step, Israel had no right to make life unbearable for the people in the Gaza Strip. Also, it must not be forgotten that Hamas is largely a creation of Israel. If Israel were not so desperate to undermine the secular Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Fatah, fundamentalist Hamas would not have come into existence.

The Gaza Strip is not a sovereign state, but Hamas runs it as if it is. As per the UN resolution which created Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem ought to form an independent Palestinian state. However, East Jerusalem is illegally occupied by Israel and the West Bank is under the control of the Fatah. Hamas won the Palestinian Parliamentary Elections in January 2006 and came to power. After infighting broke out between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas was evicted from the West Bank in mid 2007. For good measure, the Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas declared Hamas to be an illegal force. I don’t think Mahmud Abbas was right in doing so and I do think that Hamas got a raw deal in being evicted from the West Bank, considering the fact that they won 74 seats to the ruling-Fatah's 45 in the Parliamentary elections in January 2006. Most probably Israel played a key behind-the-scenes role in all this.

However, despite all these drawbacks on the part of Israel, the random launching of rockets into Israel with the intention of killing civilians cannot be justified. Hamas’s attacks on Israel are not just a reaction to the economic blockade. Instead, it arises out of Hamas’s determination that Israel should not exist as a state. The range of Hamas’s rockets has been increasing in range and accuracy by the month and soon there may be a day when Hamas is able to target any part of Israel at its will. When faced with such a situation, Israel is perfectly entitled to defend itself against such attacks and do all that is necessary to prevent such attacks in future.

The forthcoming elections in Israel and the need for the ruling Labour Party to show itself to be as tough on Hamas as the Likud Party, has definitely influenced Israel’s decision to attack the Hamas in Gaza. Nevertheless, Israel’s right to defend itself is so fundamental that it is entitled to do so even on election’s eve.

All of what I have stated above begs the question whether India is entitled to respond against Pakistan in a similar fashion in response to the Mumbai attacks. The answer is yes, though, considering the fact that Pakistan is not the Gaza Strip and it possesses nuclear weapons, India would be foolhardy to do so.

Israeli air strikes have led to heavy civilian casualties. It is not easy to watch visuals of civilians, including young children being killed, and say with a straight face the Israel’s actions are justified. However, Israel’s actions are indeed justified. Hamas has intentionally mixed up its military infrastructure with civilian infrastructure in Gaza. Hamas seems to enjoy a high degree of civilian support in Gaza. If a near-sovereign state supported by its population launches attacks on another sovereign state using equipment and men who are mixed up with civilians, the ensuing retribution will cause civilian causalities. Hamas is as much to blame for the civilians killed in the air strikes as are the people of Gaza who voted for an organisation whole sole objective is to remove Israel from the face of this earth.

Will Israel succeed in its objective? In 2006, Israel launched an offensive against the Hezbollah in Lebanon and was fought to a standstill. Hezbollah’s survival made it a lot more popular and Israel’s aura of invincibility was badly dented. Hamas is no Hezbollah. It is not as tough or as capable as Hassan Nazarallah’s organisation. Also, unlike in 2006, this time Israel seems to be successfully avoiding battles in dense population centres where die-hard Hamas fighters could take a heavy toll of its fighters. If Israel’s only objective is to stop the rocket attacks altogether, it will not succeed. If its aim is to only make Hamas pay a price for the rocket attacks, it may succeed. However, Hamas will continue to exist as an organisation even after this offensive is over. It will also retain its ability to launch attacks on Israel, as before. Its popularity in Gaza Strip and the rest of the Arab world may even go up. In short, the Israeli offensive will most probably do nothing other than help the Labour Party and Ehud Barak win the next elections.

Awaking a Sleeping Man

BangaloreGuy — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:41:25 EST

<i>You can only awake a sleeping man, and not one who pretends to sleep.</i>

-Mahatma Gandhi

In a pointed response to how good this government, the Prime Minister and the new Home Minister are at securing us, is the information that the expanded NSG is to expand to 4 more (metro) cities Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai & Hyderabad. That the "metros" definition needs a big lookover aside, it underscores the fact that these bozos do not have their head over anything that relates to governance, or security.

When was the last time Kolkata even had a terrorist attack - yeah, that is the kind of question that keeps the mind ticking, doesnt it?(2003, American Embassy) How about Chennai. Umm, the closest, is attacks in 98 at Coimbatore and in Bangalore. But, in their infinite wisdom they've a hub in Chennai too.

Attacks on Chennai may impact the Indian economy - but its not on the World radar, neither does it face a threat perception of that level (or impact the economy on a big enough scale). Attacks on Kolkata will not hurt the economy either - the last time West Bengal had a decent chance of impacting the Indian economy positively was with the Nano project, but that wasnt based in Kolkata either! (and the techs there are about the same as most Tier2 Indian cities)

No NSG for Guwahati which faces attacks here, there everywhere. No NSG for Bangalore which gives on an average 25 billion US$ to the government buckets, and has faced 2 terror attacks in the space of a year. 300,000 tech workers reside in bangalore - most employed in hubs around Electronic City or Whitefield areas. But nope, Bangalore doesnt get a NSG hub. Nearest will be in Chennai (and given the chaos in travel to the BIAL airport, travelling by road's faster - but the NSG might get Volvos if, god forbid, they'd need to be deployed in Bangalore)

Listen to this damning piece of Information (from the ToI link):

As soon as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced setting up regional NSG hubs in the wake of Mumbai attacks, chief ministers of several states including Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Maharashtra had met home minister P Chidambaram and pitched for setting up such units in their states.

Do Chief Ministers need to meet the Centre, towel-in-hand for an NSG hub to be there? What is the rationale for setting up a NSG hub? Prestige status for that state?

Or what this news report quotes:

The tech city was the favourite for stationing the elite anti-terror commando force, but it has now given way to the neighbouring Hyderabad and Chennai.

Under fire after the Mumbai terror attacks, the Centre had stressed its intention of creating more NSG hubs, and Bangalore —high on the terror radar for years—was billed as one. However, when it was announced early this week, the garden city was missing from the list. Those that bagged the NSG centres, apart from the two southern cities, were Mumbai and Kolkata.

When Deccan Herald sought to find out the reason, Home Ministry sources indicated it was mainly to deal with lobbying. “Karnataka failed in it both politically and bureaucratically. On top of it, Karnataka is an Opposition-ruled state, while Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are not.

Is it little wonder that Pakistan repeatedly spouts its "Baseless" remarks, and runs hoops around our government, while asking for"evidence"?

Israel & Palestine: Force Is Never the Solution

temporal — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:25:14 EST

Taking advantage of the lame duck Presidency of Bush, the deliberate distancing of President Elect there-is-only-one-president Obama, the holidays in the West and the attending low emphasis of politicians, Israeli Air Force launched a devastating attack on Gaza.

Israel is the non NPT signatory Occupier in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Golan and East Jerusalem, aided (up to 5 billion a year) and abetted by the West.

President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmood Abbas is perceived as an Palestinian Uncle Tom and he was soundly beaten in the elections by Hamas.

The infamous US dichotomy re: democracy sprung into action and immediately cut off all aid to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It also twisted its allies and lackeys' arms (including Canada's) to do the same. This US amnesiac approach is well documented and understood globally. Do as I say, not as I do.

Hamas leadership did not go to the same school.

This latest foray into the Gaza Strip would wane away sooner or later. But the violence and "terrorism" it would spawn would perpetuate the cycle for long.

Can anything be done to avoid the unnecessary spiralling of violence? I have written about the solution before here: Peace With Dignity: Another Gift For Israel

Criticizing Zionism is NOT anti-Semitism. States do not exist without an “official” map. Israel has to exist. Its citizens have a right to live in peace and harmony within its defined borders. They forget that to ensure this its neighbors should also have the same rights.

Both Israel and Palestinians have to demonstrate more effectively that they want to live in peace and do not want to kill, maim, expel from their land. It is for them to deliberate and decide if this should come under One State of Two State solution.

The world should help them reach this decision but should not refrain to remind Israel that it should curb its policies of occupation, subjugation, ethnic cleansing, and terrorising.

We should encourage initiatives that will let all Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, with dignity, justice and guaranteed fundamental human rights in secure borders, as enshrined in the various UN resolutions.

To remove misgivings, doubts and suspicions, international bodies including the UN, the European Union, OIC should be enlisted to provide guarantees. Peace in the region is not to be equated with death for the state of Israel.

Israel portrays itself as the David but acts as the Goliath in the region. Here are the (boxing preliminary) statistics of Israel and the Palestinians of the occupied Gaza Strip.

The Occupier Goliaths

High quality tanks 970
Medium and low quality tanks 1830
APCs, IFVs, ARVs, LCVs 6930
Self-propelled artillery 1204
Combat warplanes 875
Transport warplanes 84
Training warplanes 171
Military helicopters 286
Heavy SAM batteries 25
Warships 13
Submarines 3
Patrol boats 50 50
nuclear bombs over 300-500

The Occupied Davids

Five major militant factions operate in Gaza. These are the Islamic groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad; the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is loosely tied to Abbas' Fatah faction; the Popular Resistance Committees, a shadowy umbrella group; and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The size of the groups is unclear, but they are equipped with assault rifles, mortars, anti-tank missiles, homemade rockets and other explosives.

****

The point neoconzix in Israel and the West refuse to fathom: force is never the solution.

Congo Connection - 3

Amitabh Mitra — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 14:48:04 EST

Olusegun Obasanjo is the UN special envoy for Congo and a former Nigerian President. I saw him coming out of a tent in Eastern Congo with General Nkunda after a round of talks. The General was as usual smiling and Mr. Obasanjo looked grim. All talks have failed since then and even at the latest one held at Nairobi. The participating rebels had asked to discuss the situation in the whole country as opposed to just the conflict in the east.

Mr. Obasanjo is a failed statesman in his own country. The United Nations have done a blunder by appointing him as the mediator of a complex war involving tribes, nations and people hungry for power. The ideal person would have been Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A man respected the world over; he has an intimate knowledge of African Conflicts.

General Laurent Nkunda seems to have a plausible answer to the ongoing conflict. He has an infectious laughter and tells me of a war that would end the day he is allowed to explain his views. I believe that he should be given a chance. A government of national unity would bring the war to an end.

But the General believes that neither the United Nations nor the African Union is keen on resolving the ongoing conflict. The participating nation's army on deputation are stationed in the safer zones of the Congo war and are paid handsomely in US dollars. The Indian soldiers spend their time playing cards while trying to ward off the mosquito menace.

The eastern region is rich in minerals, such as tin ore, gold and coltan, underlining a decade of conflict in the region. Illegal mining has fanned both sides in keeping the war going by buying weapons from the proceeds of the sales of such minerals.

United Nations Resolution 1856, which commences on January 1, 2009, authorises "the continuation of up to 19,815 military personnel, 760 military observers, 391 police personnel and 1,050 personnel of formed police units."

It directs MONUC "to attach the highest priority to addressing the crisis in the Kivu province [eastern DRC], in particular the protection of civilians, and to concentrate progressively during the coming year its action in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo."

The incumbent detail of 17,000 peacekeepers have been accused by human rights groups of not doing enough to protect citizens in DR Congo, affected by increased fighting between the Tutsi National Council for the Defence of the People (CNDP) rebel forces and the army since August.

As the war continues, I stumble upon yet another famous writer, Albert Russo who is of Congolese origin. I’ve known Albert for many years, having encountered his poetry on the web pages and the print media. It was in September 2008 at the World Literature Festival in Oslo, that I actually met him for the first time in person. A great guy with a fountain of knowledge on Africa - past and present, he has written a number of novels based on Central and Eastern Africa.

His nonsense verses, I liked the best but the best I believe is yet to come. In his own words

Albert Russo was born in what is now Zaire, of an Italian father (who was born in Rhodes during the Italian occupation of the Greek Dodecanese) and an English mother (brought up in Rhodesia, today's Zimbabwe), which makes him neither Zairois, Italian, Greek, Rhodesian, Zimbabwean,or English. After primary and secondary education in francophone and anglophone Central and Southern Africa, he spent four years obtaining a degree at New York University; which does not make him American. During his seventeen Zaire-Rwanda-Burundi years he spent several months of every year in South Africa, adding up to almost four years, albeit in spaced-out installments, during turbulent times, but this does not make him South African.

He has by now spent the greater part of his life in France, but does that make him French? Jamais ! He has been translated into Greek, Turkish, German, Polish, Russian, Flemish/Dutch and Serbian, and he happens to carry a Belgian passport. Bearing in mind James Baldwin's pertinent remark, "it is perfectly possible to be enamored of Paris while remaining totally indifferent or even hostile to the French," what do all these geographic facts make of Albert Russo? Answer as a writer, he is simply uncategorizable by nationality.

Russo writes in American English and in French and has published over three hundred poems, short stories, and essays in Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, India, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, the USA, and Zimbabwe, plus more than a dozen novels published in both Anglophone and francophone countries. His poems are invariably about the human condition irrespective of geographic or national settings, and he has more than once been published in monetarily risky books of poems in English and in French within the same covers. One such book he entitled "Dans la nuit bleu-fauve" on one cover, then, turned upside down, "Futureyes" on the other. His recent collection of over 500 pages, entitled ‘The Crowded World of Solitude’, volume 2, spanning a period of 30 years, contains English and French versions of the same ten poems, and it is impossible to tell which were originally written in French, which in English; the messages are the same but the images are necessarily different, and each version sheds light on the other most interestingly, at least for those of us who are polyglots. Many of Russo's short stories have definitely American backgrounds, while others are set in Italy, Sri Lanka, China, etc. The majority of his published novels, however, centre squarely on Africa and were either adapted by himself from American English into French or written directly in French.

His sixth novel, 'Zapinette Video', which is now part of a series, has nothing whatever to do with Africa. It will be seen, then, that in terms of subject matter too, he his uncategorizable."

I was particularly interested in his education in the Congo, He writes:

I attended Athénée Royal Interracial in Usumbura (Bujumbura) for 6 years, along with Hutu, Tutsi, Pakistani, Arab and Indian students, a unique experience in colonial Africa, which gave me a cosmopolitan weltanschauung. After New York University where I majored in Economics and minored in Psychology, I spent 1 year at Collegium Palatinum in Heidelberg, Germany, where I studied German culture and literature. Then I lived 8 years in Northern Italy, before going back to NY where I worked for Unicef and taught languages to UN staff, translating for magazines such as World Press Review and publishing in US literary magazines and anthologies.

His book, ‘The Benevolent American in the Heart of Darkness’ is an internationally acclaimed novel trilogy, ‘The Black Ancestor’, ‘Eclipse over Lake Tanganyika’ and ‘Mixed Blood’, set in the former Belgian Congo and Rwanda-Urundi. It was published by Xlibris in 2004.

The book is a semiautobiographical novel which reveals the beauty of a part of Africa that has been incomparable, the people who lived there integrated to the environs that made them proudly Congolese and the desperate struggle in the later years to part with an identity that they have been born with. Exiled in different countries, they all share the same dream every night, happiness and laughter in a land that was once so full of hope.

Chapter one in The Black Ancestor starts like this:

I was born in a once lovely town called Elisabethville, now Lubumbashi, known as the Pearl of Katanga, Katanga or Shaba, which was and still remains the Congo's richest province. The whole country is alas, today in a pitiful state, after forty years of corruption and mismanagement.

The story is about Leodine who comes to know that she is actually colored, her great grandmother being an African-American with a light complexion. It is a riveting story of love, life and conflicts that rages within every colored person in Africa. Albert Russo has brought this turmoil of an African in a narrative that the reader finds difficult to keep down the book. As an African, I enjoyed it far more, being so close to my daily life.

The last chapter goes like this:

But the nostalgia of those carefree years - before I had learnt of my father's legacy - would then be replaced by a sentiment of solidarity, so much deeper and so much more meaningful, even if when, faced with the unbearable loss and the huge misery of the populations I visited, I could feel at times totally disarmed, and if my efforts would appear so futile in the face of their ordeal. But I don't regret a thing, except for the cruelty which humans keep on inflicting upon each other, as if they have never learnt anything from history.

Albert Russo is a master of African Literature, and, as opposed to Westerners who find it so difficult to understand the African sentiment, Albert has brought into life that period of the Belgian Congo and Rwanda which very few Congolese writers could shed light on.

My friend Brett Beiles is a well known poet living in Durban. His father was a popular medical practitioner who had the support of a clientele of every racial group and was equally loved by all. I asked Brett if he knew of any Congolese writer living in Durban. To my greatest surprise he introduced me to Jean-Marie Spitaels who happens to be a medical practitioner like me. I sent Jean the links to Congo Connection 1 and 2.

He wrote me back, 'I indeed remember you reading poetry to us and showing us your painting. I have published two books on my life in Congo. They are both written in French, ‘Le Vol d'une Hirondelle’ (Flight of a Swallow) in 2003 (Durban) and 2004 (Paris) and ’Lignes Tracées’ (Lines drawn), by Jean Cornet (my pen name) in 2007

'In the Flight of a Swallow', Jean Cornet keeps a chronicle of lacerations of his mind:

From childhood in Europe to the present days in Southern Africa, the author, a retired medical practitioner will take your hand to lead you from the slimy cobblestones of the North to the quivering swamps of the South. Forget historical or geographical accuracy but listen to a story told by a bard about events which took place in some fairy land. An infant has memories of American and German soldiers; an adolescent discovers the aloofness of bush hunting but ends up as a medical man, disgruntled in useless service. Inner peace is found at last by writing for those children whose soul has not been devoured by modern machinery.

His letter to me -

Dear Amitabh

I am not sure how I can help you any further short of translating the whole book in English and I prefer somebody else would do that.

I beg to differ about some of the "facts" reported in your articles.

1 : Patrice Lumumba was not kidnapped by Belgian paratroops but by the Congolese army under the orders of Mobutu. I was a medical student in Leopoldville at the time of (July 1960) independence and the speech delivered by Lumumba then, full of hate, reminds me of how Mugabe speaks now.

2 : Mike Hoare was a soldier, and a good one at that, he could indeed control his men, to the degree of shooting the rogue ones! He was confronted with mobs of indoctrinated (and drugged) youngsters who believed in being protected against bullets which would then be transformed into water (May in Swahili) by the sheer power of the mind. So those kamikaze men, armed with spears, charged at the mercenary shouting "May Mulele".

What would you have done in the position of Mike Hoare, Sir?

Have you been confronted by an African mob? I have.

3 : "Evil colonialism has inflicted ?"

This is a cliché!

I met wonderful men and women in Congo who dedicated themselves to uplifting the life conditions of local populations. My uncle, Franciscan missionary, was one of them.

I added my little bit.

I believe Africa, like the Phoenix, will come back reborn from his cinders when it stops blaming the "white man" for all its ailments.

Accept my apologies for being direct

Sincerely

Jean - Marie

General Laurent Nkunda breaks into a hearty laughter when I ask him about his possibilities of him becoming the President of Congo. Refraining from answering my question he says 'I want people like you with me who understand the heart of Congo'. South Africa lost the chance of attracting the best brains from all over the world when it resorted to democracy.

Satire: Animal Farm Too

Dhiraj Singh — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:53:19 EST

After much deliberation and rumination she spoke weighing each word with her thick-fat tongue.

“What is the point of this meeting… anyone?” This was just after John Marrow had been officially declared a vegetable. “I come in pieces,” Cowshellya Rani was trying hard to impress, finding recourse to flowery language. But flowery language too had its limitations. Between her never-stopping teeth language had also been reduced to a cud that she threw around, like her weight, every time she called a meeting.

“Peace is what you probably mean,’ said Grass Kumar, quivering at the sight of the Cowshellya Rani’s never-stopping teeth. “Is there a plural of peace?” asked Cowshellya Rani, parting her lips a tad sideways to smile. This time no one spoke for the plural of anything meant many. And being many was simply an invitation to be eaten. And no one wanted that. Even Grass Kumar was called just Grass and not Grasses even though he was many.

“You know it’s not like the old times now,” said Cowshellya Rani sighing, “I have changed”. As a sign of this change she gave the vegetable Marrow a lick on the cheek. A gasp was heard running through the hall. Unsaid words fell to the ground like melted ice-cream forming puddles of unsaid words and flowed in different directions causing much unsaid confusion.

“Can I be allowed to speak?” Baigun Khan came forward. “I think we’re getting too coloured by history. And we can’t let that happen. Can we?” A round of applause followed Baigun Khan’s suggestion and all present started hugging each other. But no one dared go near Cowshellya Rani, even though she smiled more than usual.

That hurt her much. When she couldn’t bear the pinch of not getting a hug any longer Cowshellya Rani mooed out so loud that everyone shook and shivered. “Will I never get a damn hug?” Hearing this everyone stopped hugging, waiting for Cowshellya Rani’s need for attention and intimacy pass.

They had suffered heavily under her reign. Even the memory of those horrible times was enough to send chills down their spines. They were, after all creatures of the soil. And Cowshellya Rani had in the twinkling of an eye polished off many a green pasture. Therefore Cowshellya Rani’s change of heart felt awkward and incredible and those present were not about to err on the side of caution by hugging her.

“You know, another reason why I called this meeting…” Cowshellya Rani spoke seeing that none among those present had shown any interest in hugging her. “…is to tell you that from now on I have vowed to turn humanitarian. Meaning I will only feast on the two-legged kind.” Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. And gradually they all started moving towards Cowshellya Rani so that they could hug her.

19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shihab Nye

Vivek Sharma — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:03:31 EST

Naomi Shihab Nye's collection contains sixty poems about Palestinians and Middle East, about love and longing for lost and imaginary homelands. The poems are fragrant with spices of the Middle-East, flavors of figs and olives, and served with a tenderness of a grandmother talking to a grandchild, a five year old to his mother, an aged man to his beloved he unites with after a lifetime.

In the world torn by religious and political conflicts, these poems represent an oasis of hope. It is the humanity of these verses, that leaps from the page like the memory of nineteen varieties of gazelle described in the title poem.

The poems assume special significance in the context of post-September 11 world, for they contain a platter of understanding and taste served to assuage our need to be comforted. The solace is brought in by the mint green language of a poet born to a Palestinian father and an American mother. Perhaps the unique identity of Nye offers her perspectives about the Arab East and American West which her creativity has shaped into a narrative that offers respite from the reactionary rhetoric that dominates our daily thinking and actions.

As an Indian residing in America, I sense a brotherhood with Nye's characters, who chase the voices, flavors, visions, music and familiarity that maps their nostalgic world. As a poet with Indian heart and Americanized mind, I find Nye, like Agha Shahid Ali, present our cultural and emotional duality in a lyric that is both powerful and poignant. The tapestry of inheritance of the East is laced with tales quite unknown in the West, and this wealth can nourish many a chasms that exist between the material and spiritual. It is voices like Amichai's and Nye's that remind us that the transcendental humanity within us can help us to outlive the wounds inflicted by the fanatic forces everywhere.

Congo Connection 2

Amitabh Mitra — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:26:36 EST

It’s warm in Johannesburg in December and so is Kinshasa. Somewhere at a plush estate in Midrand a deal of millions of dollars of armaments is being made. The gun sellers fuel the civil wars in Africa by selling modern weaponry made in the former USSR to all the factions. In turn lucrative deals in mining and contracts are given by the respective parties. The Zimbabwean army’s involvement in the civil war in Congo was done after such contracts were given to the generals and close relatives of the presidency.

But then this is Africa.

The 1994 Rawandan genocide, in which 500,000 ethnic Tutsis were massacred, left the world without any remorse. It was just another group of Africans being killed. The Hutus who took part in the genocide found refuge in the neighbouring Congo. They formed their organisation, calling themselves the Democratic forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The rag tag Congolese warlords who don’t believe in any politics except money rally behind a group known from the colonial era, as the Mai Mai tribal fighters and now a part of a loose group with the Government Congolese army, calling themselves as Congolese Resistance Patriots Group.

The presence in DR Congo of the FDLR, which has been accused by the UN of taking a leading role in the Rwanda killings, has led to the formation of opposition forces such as General Nkunda's National Committee for the Defence of the People (CNDP).The Tutsis a minority living in Congo are being systematically slaughtered by the Government forces and the Hutu rebels. CNDP was formed by General Laurent Nkunda who is a Congolese himself and allegedly being assisted by neighbouring Rawanda.

Meanwhile at a small private airfield close to the Johannesburg International Airport, an aircraft takes off for Kinshasa. It’s nothing unusual but the aircraft being flown by a white South African took off without any permission and above all without paying for the craft for which a deal was being made. The craft loaded with the most modern weaponry landed safely in Kinshasa.

The Russian mafia in Johannesburg to whom the craft belonged were informed too late after the bird had flown the coop.

DR Congo government forces and CNDP fighters have been battling each other in the east of the country since August. More than 250,000 people have fled their homes to escape the fighting. 100000 have died to malnutrition, disease and the bullet.Government soldiers and Nkunda's men have both been accused of atrocities against civilians.

UN peacekeepers have had little impact in putting a stop to the violence. It’s the same way the United Nations Peace Keepers acted in Rawanda when the Tutsis were being massacred. General Nkunda knows about it and doesn’t worry about the MONUC, the UN Peace Keeping Force in Congo. The MONUC in turn have also been blamed for atrocities and sexual assaults in Eastern Congo. Under the garb of United Nations it is a documented fact that they plundered and resorted to rapes in Liberia.

But let me go back again to the Belgian Congo. Robert Edric is a Britisher from Sheffield, a prolific writer, his book titled ‘The Book of Heathen’ published in 2000 by Black Swan is a gripping story based on the Belgian Congo.His novel starts with these lines -

Imagine how we might now be forced to reconsider our understanding of the situation were the so called heathen of the Bula Matari (Congo Free State) to contain among his multitudes men capable of keeping accounts of these terrible events of this shameful history told only once – imagine his own books and what they might tell us – imagine then how we might be forced to live with our disgraceful part in all of this.

Roger Casement Diary – 20 July 1893

The story narrated in the words of James Charles Russel Frasier is a map maker and a Technical overseer with the ‘Company’ which is the arm of the Belgian Government in Congo. It revolves around his friend Nicholas Frere who has killed a native girl and continues on Frere’s time in the prison. It is about the robbing of the country and the manipulation of its people by outsiders…and the manipulation of those outsiders by its people. And above all the conflicts between the varying tribes of outsiders who all have their own agenda.

The world around them is changing rapidly. The horrors of the Belgian Congo are becoming known and the flow of its once-fabulous wealth is drying up. Turn of the century and the Belgian Congo is on the cusp of independence... scapegoats must be found for the evils colonialism has inflicted.

There is mention about the apparent barbarity of the local tribes - the days of cannibalism and witchcraft - against the merciless missionary and heartless trader. The colonial administrators and surveyors are portrayed as well-meaning but ineffectual, hearts in the right place…but with no real concept of the country they have taken to or what or how to deal with it.

Meanwhile the war in Congo continues abated. I remember the rotund rebel General Laurent Kabila in safari suits who visited South Africa a number of times in failed peace talks, ousted Mobutu in May 20 1997. Che Guevara assisted Kabila for a short time in 1965. He planned to bring a Cuban Style revolution which unfortunately never succeeded. Kabila used the Tutsis from South Kivu to fight against the Hutu soldiers of Mobutu. What followed was mayhem and murder all along the jungle path till Kabila reached Kinshasa.

Laurent Kabila was assassinated by one of his own soldiers on the afternoon of January 16 2001. His son Joseph Kabila became the President and found allies in Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. Everything seems to point at controlling the mineral rich resources in Congo.

Paul Pumphrey, the founding member of Friends of the Congo says,

“This problem ... is created around the industrialised world wanting to get their hands on the mineral resources of the Congo," he said.

"Outside forces want to rob the minerals out of the Congo and not pay a fair share for those minerals. And they've used this war as a means to push people off their land and not pay royalties and the government at all.

"Ninety per cent of [the Congo's] population do not make $100 a year. So where would they buy guns from? These guns coming into this war are coming in from other sources, not the local community.

"Industry works hand in hand with government ... Countries like the United States, like Great Britain, like France, like Japan, these are countries whose governments operate on the behest of their corporations.

"So I hold countries like the United States very much responsible for this war.

"This militia raised millions of dollars to fund their war through the illegal trade in minerals, says the BBC's Thomas Fessy in Kinshasa

Reference - The Book of the Heathen – Robert Edric, Published by Black Swan 2000

-Wikipedia

To be continued

poem: hatred and love

temporal — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:18:42 EST

Reuters – A clock is seen in front of the
logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse at
the Paradeplatz square in Zurich …

we have to wait a second longer
for 2008 to end
those who exude hatred
would have more
time
                           to maim
                                 to hate
                                 to kill

i hate hatred
                                 but understand the necessity
without                       hatred
love would have no place to flourish

if hatred was a sacrificial goat
it should be rescued and protected

despite the century of holocausts
armenians, gypsies, jews, hindus, muslims,
cambodians, rwandans, bosnians, chechenians...
despite the murders and mayhems
hate should be protected and mirrored

sorry t.s.e. april is not the cruelest month
                                 november is...

each hateful act, each act of violence
enhances the resolve
                                 to hate hatred
                             to love love
even if it be with moistened eyes

Symbolic Gestures Are Sometimes Necessary

Vinod Joseph — Tue, 9 Dec 2008 09:46:44 EST

Veteran journalist Jawed Naqvi is the Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi. Highly respected and very much balanced, Naqvi has in the past worked for Gulf News and Khaleej Times. I have been a regular reader of Naqvi’s articles ever since they started appearing in the Dawn and have almost always been in agreement with the very sensible points of view he usually espouses. However, in his most recent article, Naqvi has taken a stand that I did not fully agree with. According to Naqvi, the refusal to bury the dead terrorists who attacked Mumbai is wrong. In support of his argument, Naqvi says, ‘they should know that no Constitution, other than perhaps the Taliban’s, endorses the abuse of dead bodies.’

Naqvi also finds issue with another symbolic gesture made by Delhi’s Muslim “leaders” “who have reportedly agreed to wear a black armband on Eidul Azha to mark their anguish at the carnage in Mumbai.” According to Naqvi, “nothing could be more cosmetic, meaningless and distractive than to make the token observation.”

Naqvi goes on to say that “everybody has been trying to carry on with life after the outrage.” Therefore, he wonders, why don’t Muslims do the same? In short, Naqvi gets the feeling (and he may be right) that Indian Muslims are forced to make these token gestures to prove their patriotism in the current climate.

Naqvi ends his article by making a very valid point. He says that it is inevitable that the Mumbai attacks were supported by some alienated Indian Muslims. Rather than make token gestures, Naqvi wants Indian Muslims to isolate such alienated brethren in their midst rather than demonstrating their sympathy with the Indian state. I have no issues with Naqvi’s final point. It is far more important that India's Muslim community identify and isolate the bad 'Uns in their midst rather than refuse an Islamic burial to the terrorists. Identifying and isolating the bad 'Uns in their midst is much more important for India's Muslim community than refusing an Islamic burial to the terrorists.However, I think the decision to deny an Islamic burial was essentially right. Also, symbolic gestures can do some good at times like this, though it wouldn’t do to force a community to make gestures. Let's admit it, thanks to Islamic fundamentalists and their activities, Islam and all Muslims have a serious PR issue - an image problem.As any self-respecting PR consultant will tell you, in order to fix an image problem, you need to get to the root of the problem. Getting to the root of a problem usually takes time and effort. Until the cause of the problem is identified and destroyed, it is necessary to undertake a few PR exercises which give some temporary relief.

Naqvi may not be aware of this, but refusal to grant a proper religious burial is one that is not unheard of among Catholics and Jews. If a Catholic commits suicide (prohibited by the Church), a Catholic burial is denied. Recently, the Dutch Catholic church extended this principle to victims of assisted suicide. Jews who practise Christianity will not be eligible for a Jewish burial and Christians who convert to any other religion will not be eligible for a Christian burial. I do not wish to use this forum to discuss whether the Catholic Church or the Jews are right in refusing a religious burial, but only want to stress that the decision to deny a Muslim burial is not unique. The Mullahs who denied the terrorists an Islamic burial have said that the terrorists have ceased to be Muslims by their heinous actions. I find this to be a very valid statement. Only Muslims are entitled to an Islamic burial and if one ceases to be a Muslim, one has no right to an Islamic burial.

If the terrorists were to be buried in an Islamic cemetery, even if the graves are unmarked, wouldn’t the local Muslim community be under so much more pressure for having given the terrorists a final resting place? Sure, they shouldn’t be under such pressure and they shouldn’t be forced to make such symbolic statements, but to be honest, the time for such niceties is long past.

Let me give you an example. Let’s assume a few bloggers (like me) install spy software on their blogs which allows them to hack into their readers computers and steal money from their bank accounts (yeah, I may be stretching it here, but do indulge me). Should I be forced to apologise on behalf of the rotten blogger(s)? No, of course not. What happens if the number of bloggers who play dirty goes up and they receive sympathy and support from say 25% of global bloggers? You can be sure that I would not be in a hurry to declare my blogging habit to a bunch of strangers in a pub after a few rounds. What if readers of blogs lose a lot of money due to a sudden spurt in such nefarious activity? The number of people who read blogs will be drastically reduced and I may be forced to make symbolic gestures to the public at large. I would declare that I have no idea as to who the bad bloggers are. I might donate some money to the people who lost money. I might put up the sign of a wreath on top of my blog, though fat lot of good it would do.

The decision to wear a black arm band is a symbolic gesture for sure, and the ones wearing it are in a sense forced to wear it, but such gestures are now necessary and are not to be written off, until the root of this problem is identified and destroyed.

After the Kargil war, when Pakistan refused to take back its dead, India gave the dead bodies a proper Muslim burial. Images of Indian soldiers conducting Islamic rites were broadcast to the world, giving India a PR coup. Should the Indian government at this stage step in and do what was done after Kargill? Offer an Islamic burial to the dead terrorists in a purpose made graveyard unconnected with any Muslim community in India, distribute photographs of the dead bodies and their burial to the world media and allow family members of the terrorists to visit the graves at any time in the future? The other alternative would be to cremate the bodies in an electric crematorium without any ceremony and scatter the ashes in the Arabian Sea. Let the terrorists float back to where they came from.

India's 9/11 - Rage, Retaliation, and Restraint, Part II

Vinod Joseph — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 09:31:38 EST

I had written Part I of this article just after the attacks started. Now that the nightmare is over, it’s time to analyse the situation with a cooler head.

The Mumbai attacks were India’s 9/11. I say this mainly because it has suddenly become clear to me why the USA not only attacked the Taliban and invaded Afghanistan, but also went on to invade Iraq. The sheer need to find a scapegoat (any scapegoat) and lash out at that entity is overwhelming and I’m sure most readers will understand what I’m saying. However, having seen the disastrous effects of the Iraq war, it becomes all the more important that we do not try and follow the US example. India is a lot less wealthy and powerful than the US and we just cannot afford to make a mistake on the lines of what the US did in Iraq.

Till recently, I was sympathetic to the Pakistani view that the US had no business firing missiles into Pakistani territory, even if the objective was to kill Taliban. Now my eyes have been opened and I can see very clearly why it is absolutely necessary to kill the Taliban where ever possible. If American troops are being attacked in Afghanistan by Pakistan based militants, the US has every right to hunt them in Pakistan.

In all probability, the Pakistani government had nothing to do with the acts of its nationals who participated in this attack. The Pakistan based militants responsible for this attack most probably had the backing and blessings of their local chapter of the Al Qaeda. After all, what’s the Al-Qaeda but a loose coalition of Islamic insurgents who assist each other with funds, weapons and training? Massing troops on the Pakistani border (a la Operation Parakram) or threatening to launch an all-out war will not help anyone, except maybe the Taliban and the Pakhtun fighters in Pakistan’s north-west since Pakistan will switch its troops to confront India and relieve the pressure against the Islamic militants within Pakistan.

Trawling the blogosphere, one finds so many views on how India should react to these attacks. One view is that India must support as many insurgencies and separatist movements in Pakistan as possible, the idea being to cause the balkanisation of Pakistan. The idea has its attraction, but what would we actually achieve? If Pakistan were to splinter, it is likely that each of the chunks that breaks away will be economically worse off. A lot more unemployed men will be available to be brainwashed in the name of religion and used as cannon fodder in a war which doesn’t really concern them. The militants who attacked Mumbai are supposed to have come from impoverished southern Punjab. Let’s assume that Pakistan has splintered into Punjab, Baluchistan, Pakhtoonistan and Sindh. Would it mean that towns like Multan and Bahawalpur would cease to churn out men like Azam Amir Qasab? I seriously doubt it.

Another option I came up on was that India should send troops to Afghanistan to help the beleaguered Americans there. The biggest handicap the Americans face in Afghanistan is the shortage of boots on the grounds. The combined US-coalition troop strength in Afghanistan is not more than 50,000. If we could send our soldiers to help the United States (preferably keeping our soldiers in the north of Afghanistan where the Uzbeks and Tajiks are India’s allies), the fight against the Taliban would progress so much more nicely. Even after the American withdraw, the India-friendly Tajiks and Uzbeks would control northern Afghanistan and put the Pashtuns on the ropes. Making the Pashtuns insecure would revive Pashtun nationalism and cause further trouble for the Pakistani government. The problem with this theory is that it does not explain how support for Islamic militancy will dry up if the Pashtuns are on the ropes in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Internal squabbles within Pakistan may cause some of the militants to ignore India for a while, but it will not last for long. Remember, the Islamic militants in Pakistan are right now in the midst of a full-fledged war against Pakistan and the US in Afghanistan and it didn’t stop them from attacking Mumbai.

Manmohan Singh has already announced the formation of a new federal agency to tackle incidents of this sort. As if we don’t have enough agencies! We just need to reform the ones we already have. RAW and IB ought to be merged. The age-old distinction between external and internal threats is no longer there. External enemies work with internal enemies. Both RAW and IB must be run by intelligence professionals and not by police officers drawn from the IPS. I assume there will be an attempt to reinstate POTA or another avatar of this stupid law. We need to enforce the laws we have, rather than create new laws. Even if POTA were in operation when the Mumbai attacks took place, it would not have made an iota of difference.

Just as the 1962 debacle against China served as a wakeup call to modernise our armed forces, hopefully these attacks will force us to modernise our police forces and our processes for responding to such an event. There were so many things that were so patently wrong in the way we reacted to the attacks. Allowing mobs of people to surround the places under siege, permitting news channels to telecast details of the operations, most of it live, senior police officers jumping into the fray (only to get killed) rather than coordinating efforts, the list of mistakes is indeed very long. I think India was right in refusing to accept assistance from Israel or other countries when the siege was on. No, I am not saying we should be haughty or proud and say No even if we stand to gain. I just don’t think any fighting force can quickly start using new weapons or techniques, especially in the heat of battle. Now that things have quietened down, we should obtain assistance from friendly countries such as the US and Israel and plug the gaps.

There were a few points in our fighting tactics that looked silly even to a layperson like me. Our security forces kept saying that the terrorists seemed to know the layout of the Taj and the Oberoi better than they did. I have visited the Oberoi and the Taj many times and neither of them has a very complicated layout. May be some of the terrorists were locals who had visited the Taj and the Oberoi many times. Maybe the terrorists had visited Mumbai earlier and recconnoitered both the hotels. Nevertheless, there is no reason why our security forces could not have made themselves as familiar with the layout of the hotels as they wanted to be before going in. I remember reading an account of the Israeli operation at Entebbe many years ago. The Israelis obtained a blue print of the airport from the construction firm which built it, prepared a mock-up of the airport and practised with the mock-up before flying to Entebbe. Why couldn’t our chaps have done something similar? And once the militants were holed up in the hotels and NAriman House, why were we in such a hurry to complete the operation. Why didn’t we even make an attempt to capture them alive?

It is said that the local police ran way from CST instead of confronting the terrorists. It does sound like a grievous dereliction of duty, but then our policemen are not trained to fight men who fight back, are they? The average Indian policeman is good at bullying the weak and infirm, conducting midnight raids on brothels and rounding up the hapless women who work there. We need to retrain all our policemen. The armed reserve should be given combat training, rather than merely training them use firearms, whilst other policemen should be trained to understand the public and to work with them.

One kept hearing that the terrorists were armed with very sophisticated weapons. Since when did AK-47s and grenades get classified as sophisticated weapons?

Let me come back to the question I raised in Part I of this article. How do we retaliate against these attacks? We could use this opportunity to try and get Pakistan to extradite Dawood Ibrahim or someone else equally important in the underworld-ISI chain. However, the chances of Pakistan giving up someone so important and who would know so much, are not very high. The best thing to do, in my opinion, would be build a good case to prove that the attackers came from Pakistan. We should involve as many foreign agencies as possible while carrying out the investigation into this attack, including the background of the militants. Our findings will then have so much more credibility. If it is proved that all or most of the attackers came from Pakistan, the Pakistani government will be under tremendous international pressure to take some action against the organisations which planned the attacks.

Some of those involved in planning this attack were doubtless locals. Whatever maybe the grievances they have, I don’t think their actions can be justified. However, we should not condemn an entire community because of a few rotten tomatoes in their midst. Instead, we need to identify such elements and neutralise them before they do further damage. Our intelligence apparatus must be drastically overhauled for this task.

It is a fact that Indian Muslims are relatively poorer than other Indians. They have not really participated in the recent economic boom. Rather than trying to find out who’s to blame for this state of affairs, we ought to ensure that there are more Muslims become software engineers, doctors, lawyers, soldiers, bankers and policemen. If Muslims have a greater share in India’s wealth, there will be few local collaborators for such attacks. Similarly, I think that if Pakistan were to be more prosperous, with fewer Pakistanis living in poverty, the chances of Pakistanis volunteering for such missions will be greatly reduced. No, we will not be able to guarantee that the flow of suicide bombers will totally stop, but it will be greatly reduced. I am not sure though, what we should do to spread the tendrils of prosperity from India to Pakistan and Bangladesh.

It hurts to say this, but we will have to increase our defence budgets and spend more money on intelligence gathering. Rather than increase the size of our armed forces and police forces, we should train them better, arm them better and put in place better processes and a more efficient command structure. This increased defence expenditure is something our country could have done without, but it can’t be avoided after this attack.

Almost all fundamentalist attacks are funded by money from the middle-east. India must stop buying oil from that region, even if we end up paying more. India is Asia’s third largest oil consumer and we import more oil from Saudi Arabia than from any other country in the world. In the last financial year, 73.74 per cent of our oil imports came from the middle-east. India also imports oil from Nigeria and Angola. Getting oil from Russia and Venezuela may be more expensive due to higher transport costs, but at least we will not be putting money into the region that supports murderers such as these. A greater emphasis on alternative fuels will also go a long way in cutting our fuel bills. In these days of falling oil prices and growing alternative sources of energy, this is not an impossible task. With luck other countries will emulate India’s example and stop buying oil from middle-east.