Black & White

I keep getting told that life is not black and white, that I can be too judgmental – that things are not that cut and dried. That the Good is not discrete. That the Good and the Bad hold hands, that they blur into a vague grey.

Crap.

Actually, life looks grey because it's made up of many black and white dots. Like dots on a newspaper. Black and white events, black and white moments. Moments where you do what's right, and moments where you do something recklessly selfish, or moments where you stand by and let something happen.

Just because there are a lot of those moments, doesn't mean we're any less responsible for choosing the side we're with at that moment.

If we confuse issues, then we're out of focus, and rather than see all the black and white moments, we see a blurred continuum of maybe's and greys.

When we do that we are shirking our main duty.

It is on us to perceive with clarity and empathy, it is on us to ascertain which side bears the burden of the good, and it is on us to take that side, and share with it that burden.

Nothing grey about any of that.

So Much For The 'Digital Revolution' : They're Screwing With Your Heads.

According to one investigator - each of the new highly active twitter accounts were created on Saturday, June 13th. “IranElection” is their most popular keyword. He narrowed the spammers to the most persistent: @StopAhmadi, @IranRiggedElect, and @Change_For_Iran. He researched further and found that On June 14 the Jerusalem Post already had an article on the new twitter.

http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/proof-israeli-effort-to-destabilize-iran-via-twitter/

Ahmedinejad, The U.S., and The Iranian Elections

It's an easy enough lie to digest.

Ahmedinejad is a nutcase. Look at him, he's been wearing the same jacket for years, ever since we ever laid eyes on him. He's unshaven, looks kind of gruffy. He exhudes an informal, almost clumsy air and doesn't seem like much of an orator. He's soft spoken enough to make a cynic disbelieve anything he says, and the claims that he's still living in his old house and still driving his god-knows-how-old car all seem inherently ridiculous.

And then, of course, it was his idea to hold a conference on the Holocaust in an attempt to weed out the truth from the myths involved, and naturally, it was he who everybody credits with wanting to wipe out his Zionist neighbors.

It's easy to paint Ahmedinejad as a "petty, cruel, and ignorant dictator" as he was described by his host, the President of Columbia University in New York, after accepting an invitation to speak there.

Yeah, it's pretty easy.

I don't know about the old house, nor can I confirm that Ahmedinejad still drives an old car, but I have read the letter he sent to George Bush Jr., while Bush was still in office, and perhaps you should give it a read too, if you have the time or the inclination. It’s written simply, almost naively (considering who he was addressing), and is clearly unedited by anything resembling a professional political writer.

Once, during a television interview with some major U.S. network, I forget the name of the interviewer now, but it was a considered a major scoop at the time – the American Interviewer noticed Ahmedinejad’s assistant whisper something to him during the interview. Sensing the sinister intent behind the whisper, the American Interviewer asked Ahmedinejad what his assistant had told him. “Oh", said Ahmedinejad, adjusting his jacket, “he just told me to adjust my jacket because it looks a bit strange on the monitor.” Truly, investigative journalism at its best.

When Ahmedinejad – oh, wait – you’re still put off by the name, right?

Here, let’s play syllables: Ahmed (c’mon you know that one, right?) DEE (like John Dee, for example) NE (like your NEck) JAD (like, er…Chad)…see? Simple Ahmed-Dee-Ne-Jad. See?

To continue:

What Ahmedinejad (don’t you feel better about him already, now that you can pronounce his name?) said about the Chicken Little that you like to call ‘Israel’ (okay, so it’s not worried about the sky falling on its head – but it is particularly obsessed with being pushed into the sea..) – is that the ZIONIST regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish in the pages of time. It seems to redundant to say this, but apparently, there is a need – a regime is not a people, a regime is not a mother, a regime is not a boy, a regime is not a child. A regime is a mindset, and some regimes, such as the Apartheid Regime in South Africa, are certainly doomed to a morally-bankrupt downfall.

So now, we have Ahmedinejad – and an Iranian Election.

When Ahmedinejad was insulted by his host at Columbia University before he had even spoken, he replied, when he did take the podium, by saying that he was unfamiliar with America but that in his country, guest are not invited to an occasion simply to be insulted and ridiculed. The same Columbia students who clapped when he was insulted by their President applauded Ahmedinejad when he made that statement.

Their minds, apparently, are easy to sway.

So now, we are told that Ahmedinejad has stolen the Iranian Elections! That his people actually support an pro-reform opponent called Mousavi (it’s certainly easier to pronounce, isn’t it?) – and that the election has been rigged! The people of Iran have lost their voices! Their democracy has been hijacked by the Hitler-Esque Madman of Tehran, the would-be Holocaust-Denier, the would be Israeli-Decimator, the teacher who thinks he’s a preacher, if-he-gets-a-bomb-he’ll-beat-cha’ – Ahmedinejad!

Oh, gosh.

So here are the lies:

Ahmedinejad has less support than Mousavi. The U.S. and International Media know this. Ahmedinejad could not have gotten 62.6% of the votes since Mousavi is so well-supported. Mousavi is pro-reform, and the young population of Iran loves him because they yearn for a reformist who will bring Western Values to the country! The vote has been stolen, and Mousavi has been asking his supporters to stay calm while the issue is resolved. However, his supporters, those Valiant Iranians seeking the Western JuJu will not be calmed, they are on the streets asking for their rights! Ahmedinejad and the ruling council are meeting them with an Iron Fist. Killing them in a brute display of force! Proving once and for all that the rule of the madman in Iran is monstrous!

Oh, gosh indeed.

The Independent (of the UK) publishes a story in which an agonized Iranian student referred to as Maryam tells of her disappointment – that her hopes have been destroyed, her voice stolen, her dreams dashed. I run into the story since a friend of mine living in the UK sees it and sympathizes with the poor all-but-fictional ‘Maryam’.

Well-intentioned people fall for this story just as they fall for Obama and his recent speech to the Muslim World. Just as they fall for an invasion of Afghanistan that promises to liberate the women of Afghanistan from the dreaded tyranny of the Hijab – as only cluster bombs and an invasion force of rapists know how.

The truth is this:

Ahmedinejad has always had more support than Mousavi – even a recent American pre-election poll proves that much. Not only that, but it proves that even in Mousavi’s supposed main demographic – the Azeri’s polled 2 to 1 in favor of Ahmedinejad previous to the election. In fact, the polling overwhelmingly demonstrated that Ahmedinejad would get not only 62.6% of the vote but 66% of the vote and that his strongest voting bloc was among 18-24 year olds.

Mousavi is not as well-supported as his fans or the U.S. or England, or Israel would have you believe. That is, depending on how you see it – either a delusion of people who cannot believe that anybody could sincerely prefer a non pro-western candidate – or an illusion designed to fool over-educated, well-intentioned do-gooders who still can’t get over the fact that the Iranians might not see things the way they do and might not share their intentions, hopes or dreams.

Mousavi only made things worse (and this is apparently, all he’s really designed, and perhaps more dangerously paid to do) by declaring himself a winner before the official election results came in. Thus making his supporters (mainly, by the way, composed of university graduates, and the richer echelons of Iranian society) feel as though they had a victory and then had it stolen from them. In doing so, he has caused a great deal of fury, anger, and disappointment. Not only has he done this, but he has also specifically asked his supporters to continue to demonstrate, despite the fact that this is a legal issue – he is thus directly responsible for any bloodshed that occurs during those demonstrations, and is the primary inciting force behind the violence.

But you don’t want to hear all that.

Like Axl said in ‘Sorry’ - “It’s harder to live with the truth about you, than to live with the lies about me.”

And so it goes.

Obama In Cairo

Well, here he was.

Massive hype, of course, an event touted as a game-changer for American/Arab relations and something that a lot of people were eagerly expecting.

Even before the event, certain facts were being highlighted within the region -

Unlike most, if not all, US Presidents of the last few decades, Obama would not be visiting Israel and would not be driven straight from the airport to the Holocaust Museum.

Obama would make his speech from Cairo, not from any of the other Middle-Eastern U.S. Buddy Nations of Arabia. This, in itself, is seen to augment Egypt’s arguably waning influence within the region.

And so he comes, with a security details of around, apparently, 3,000 Americans – most of whom entered the country with no visa or who were given rushed, no-questions-asked visa’s in the airport as they landed, putting in a more embarrassing light the humiliation and contempt with which the average Egyptian has to contend with if he desires to travel to the US, or for that matter, most other ‘Western’ countries in the 1st Century PWTC (Post World Trade Center).

Egypt, of course – painted any roads that Obama would drive or fly anywhere near. Traffic was restrained, and people pretty much stuck to their homes. Obama’s trip through Cairo would be pretty and unencumbered by the usually troublesome Cairo traffic.

A courtesy?

Perhaps.

So he’s at Cairo University, and he speaks. He tries the Arabic but keeps stumbling on the name ‘Azhar’. Still, he’s trying – so we listen.

The speech is very well written, rhetorically speaking – it’s quite well designed. A bit cliché-ridden here and there, the usual forms and patterns, but with a generous serving of credit to Moslems and to Islam. In any case -

These are my issues:

Obama not only regurgitates the standard Holocaust accounts of 6 million Jews killed (never mind that we’re ignoring the other non-Jewish 12 million people killed during the war) – but states that these are undeniable facts which nobody can dispute. With this he ignores the very real dispute put forward by historians like Roger Garaudy, and others. In short – that Jews were killed, but that many other races and/or groups were killed, and that it’s highly unlikely that the figure is anywhere near 6 million. Not only does the Obama regurgitate all of these (yes) disputed numbers, but you must remember that he does so while speaking to a people who were in no way at all responsible for a single one of those murders, and who despite this, have suffered from the event for the last 60 years at least, and are still suffering from it today.

In an attempt at ‘balance’ – the Obama uses the word ‘Occupation’ when referring to the Israeli aggression on Palestinians and yet by insisting that the Palestinians must renounce violence he is basically attempting to strip them of one of their basic human rights. In order to mask this, he mentions the agonizing example of school buses being targeted by Palestinian rockets – ignoring the fact that the Palestinian rockets are home-made pieces of flying debris and that thousands of them raining on Israel would amount, in effect to a nasty day-full of hail-stones. Ignoring the fact that a single Israeli helicopter or F16 can and does (routinely) inflict far more damage to the Palestinians.

The attempt at balance is shameful, and a simple scenario should clarify why it’s a false platform:

I steal $100 from you. A 3rd party walks in, hoping to arbitrate. You say it’s your $100, I say it’s my $100. In an effort at ‘fairness’ – the 3rd party offers to split and to give each of us $50.

Balanced? Only if you have the attention span of a goldfish.

Obama mentions that the settlements must ‘stop’. Stop? Stop to me, sounds like a gate through which what the Israelis call ‘natural growth’ will pass through unharmed. If, as Obama seems to admit, he knows they are illegal – then why is he not using the much more appropriate verb ‘dismantle’?

Feeble.

Obama throws around references to nuclear arms in the region – incredibly – and oh, the audacity – he is not talking about Israel. Israel has an estimated 200-300 nuclear bombs, and has never demonstrated anything resembling a desire for peace, and yet – the Obama is talking about IRAN.

He claims a desire for a nuclear free world, while he sits on around 20 or 30 thousand nuclear weapons and represents the only country in the world to have used them twice.

A word on that. First of all, the regular apologetics claim that the U.S. saved lives by nuking Hiroshima and Nagazaki is fallacious – it ignores the documented facts – that Japan was trying to surrender anyway. There is also the matter of why the U.S. felt the need to use TWO bombs – and for those still looking for an explanation – here’s a simple clue – they had two types of bombs.

Science, folks.

Obama tells us that he’s shutting down Guantanamo – and the people applaud. Unaware perhaps that as Obama was saying this, a 31-year-old Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo who had been imprisoned since 2001 was killing himself. He had been on a hunger-strike, and was thereafter held in a psychiatric ward where he was force-fed in a restraint chair and most likely held sedated.

These same people are also most likely unaware that in fact, most American ‘detainees’ are not held in Guantanamo at all, but around the world in what can only be described as torture-franchise stations in various third world countries around the world.

Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, The Shock Doctrine, and other works – said that “Obama is making us stupid.” – and in an single attention seeking moment, one of the actors present at the Cairo speech shouted ‘We Love You Obama!’ – during the speech. Obama, dutifully, thanked him, and continued.

Obama went on to claim that the ‘war’ (read ‘invasion’) with (read ‘of’) Afghanistan was forced on the U.S. by the attacks of 9/11 (which, it should be mentioned he mentioned at least 3 or 4 times during the speech) – ignoring completely the well-reported (do your homework if you don’t remember this) fact that the Taliban explicitly made an offer to surrender any of those proven to be responsible (including Osama Bin Laden) to a neutral country for trial if any evidence was presented. Ignoring the fact that 6 months before the invasion of Afghanistan the Afghanis were threatened with just that – an invasion – if they did not submit to the pipe-line demands of Haliburton, etc.

And so it goes.

America Marches On.

Ironically, it is the people on the street who see through the lies. The cab drivers of Egypt, the doormen, the plumbers and the carpenters – all of those seem to understand innately – that the Obama is all talk – all of those are skeptical of mere words, and are in wait of any real action, any substance to the smoke and mirrors.

It is the educated of the Middle-East, the ones with degrees, the ones who’ve invested in Americana – who are most eager to believe him, who are most eager to wash themselves aglow with his apparent sincerity – with his apparent good intentions – with his apparent respect for Islam.

We need much more.