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The Koran Burning Episode: Negligence or Stupidity?

By Patricia Lee Sharpe

In Afghanistan (and Pakistan) even locals can lose their lives for mishandling a Koran, which mostly they don’t do, although accusations of Koran abuse occur with some regularity.  The best way to carry out a land grab is to accuse a landowner of mishandling a Koran.  If you are lucky, the accused will get lynched and you can snatch the land with little futher ado.  If you aren’t lucky, the accused will end up with a long prison sentence, but the land might still end up as yours.

An American contact was annoyed with me recently.  I’d declared that anyone and everyone serving in the U.S. Army (or with any of the allied forces) should know that Afghans are pretty touchy about how Korans are treated.  Ordinary American soldiers aren’t going to know that, he said.  Even if they’re told, it won’t make any impression.  They won’t remember.

I don’t think American troops are stupid.  I don’t believe that they are incapable of learning respect for local custom.  It’s far more likely that their commanders and their commanders’ commanders haven’t done a very good job of providing the cultural sensitization that (we’re told) is routine.  Maybe sensitizing is on the syllabus, so to speak, but carried out so badly, so offhandedly, with so little sense of urgency, that anyone in the audience would fall asleep. Or maybe it’s done in an off-putting preachy way. Sermons do get boring.  How clearly are the troops taught that Koran handling is a life and death matter?  Your buddy could die.  Your vehicle could get blown up.  Etc

Like many observers, I was pretty outraged by this unnecessarily provocative act, but it may be that I’m even more puzzled by it.  Nowhere in my reading have I found any reference to clear cut, codified procedures for handling Korans, step by step procedures to be followed without fail.

Photo Journal of an Occupier in Santa Fe

by Elizabeth Cook-Romero

This piece first appeared here:  http://miriamswell.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/n.jpg  Look for a follow up with second thoughts in the near future.

The encampment in Zuccotti Park was five days old, when I read about it on the Daily Kos. I Googled Occupy Wall Street, enlarged every photograph and found what I’d been longing to see: a movement lead by young adults.

I shared my discovery with a friend who accused me of ageism. I defended myself, explained that sixty-year-olds cannot lead a revolution. She repeated the accusation.

A few days later, I attended a MoveON meeting and met a women who wanted to organize a show of solidity with Occupy Wall Street. Everyone there embraced the idea. The group chose a date three weeks away. The woman insisted we had to act now. Police were itching to destroy OWS. MoveOn members said rallies need planing. She left. Two days later she sent an e-mail announcing an Occupy Santa Fe protest that Saturday.

On Oct. 1, perhaps one hundred of us gathered by the Bank of America on Paseo de Peralta. Gray-haired men and women outnumbered young protestors, and many of the signs were left over from rallies organized by MoveOn or Uncut US. I had fun but didn’t feel I had witnessed the birth of a revolution.

The next Saturday, our number had more than doubled, but more importantly, we now represented a cross section of the community — young, old and every in between — professionals, office workers, artists, students. We were even joined by a giant puppet that depicted a politician, with one huge ear for campaign contributors and one tiny ear for constituents.

We occupied all corners of the intersection. We marched through cross walks on green lights and ran on red. Most drivers smiled, flashed an upraised thumb or honked. Big-rig horns blasted. A fire truck whuuuped. We screamed that we, the 99%, owned the street.

Only two drives shot me a bird. One yelled, “Get a job.” During the past four months, the only rebukes I have heard are get a job and take a bath. Clearly our opposition lacks imagination.

The next Saturday, Occupy Santa Fe, MoveOn, New Mexican unions and other progressive groups marched on the Round House. Three weeks of planning paid off. There were at least 700 protestors, a dozen information booths, even a soap box where nurses, students and union members stepped up and explained why they were there.

I recalled a time when men in hardhats beat protestors. This movement is different. At least for the moment, we are standing together. We all know we’ve been screwed, and we’ll continued to get screwed until we make it stop.

Some of us marched to the plaza. Word passed though our line that a children’s concert, which was scheduled to end a half hour before, was still going on. We entered the plaza silently, listened to the end of the concert and applauded wildly. A few kids seemed shocked by the ovation.

Later that day, we held a General Assembly in the park behind the Round House. Union members and curious passers by lent their voices to the people’s mic and learned the hand signals that have become hallmarks of Occupy’s horizontal democracy.

We celebrated, though knew we were taunting a monster. Since then — in cities across the nation — thousands of us have been arrested. We’ve been doused with industrial-strength mace. We’ve dodged teargas canisters and rubber bullets. We’ve been shoved, kicked and punched. Our camps have been overwhelmed by the addictions and mental illnesses that plague the forgotten and long-term homeless. We’ve splintered over which tactics will further our cause.

Yet in spite of it all, we are strong, and we’re not going away.

mmmmmm

What’s Syria to Russia?

By Patricia H. Kushlis

Is, or is not, the Cold War over?  Certainly Russia’s veto in the UN Security Council last week that torpedoed the resolution calling for Assad to resign and Russia’s subsequent vote against the UN General Assembly resolution urging Assad to step down gives pause to wonder whether Russia’s leadership is indeed leading the country back to its pre-1991 days.

Or maybe the issue is whether the 70 year Communist regime foremost promulgated traditional Russian interests under the guise of leader of the Communist world and, in reality, nothing has changed over the past 20 years.   Czars, Commissars and Presidents – the official title doesn’t really matter and neither does the country’s form of government.  Long term Russian national strategic interests trump everything else. Or maybe it’s really the Kremlin’s fears of controlling its own population that’s the issue deep down at heart.

In short, not only has Russia’s international behavior remained the same for centuries but Syria is just the latest example of the bear baring its teeth to protect its own innards from predators from within – as much as its big power status without.  

Numerous explanations have circulated throughout the media as to Russia’s vociferous defense of Assad but the three reasons I find the most compelling were those identified by Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens and Rice University’s Baker Institute Director Edward Djerejian a week or so back.

 

These are: 1) traditional Russian righteous indignation against foreign “interference” in its internal affairs; 2) Russian moves to protect its large naval base at Targus, Syria and hence, its military presence in the eastern Mediterranean – which if the Assad regime were to fall might no longer be so permanent; and 3) Russia’s commercial interests in keeping Assad supplied with Russian military hardware regardless of how they are used or, in this case, misused. 

 I know that The New York Times’ David M. Herszenhorn reported from Moscow on February 19, 2012 that many analysts “say that the most concrete reason for Moscow to guard its relations with Damascus is “the long standing arms sales to Syria.”  On the face of it, the lucrative Russian military sales to the Syrians look impressive. “The value of Russian arms deals to Syria more than doubled during 2007-10 from $2.1 billion to $4.7 billion as compared with 2003 to 2006 according to a CRS report by veteran international security expert Richard F. Grimmett.

I don’t discount the role foreign weapons sales play to the Russian Federation’s military-industrial complex or the country’s coffers and I have great respect for Grimmett’s analytical abilities, but if the country had to write off nearly 75% of Syria’s unpaid bills in 2005, what makes the Russians any surer of recouping their costs – let alone making a profit on similar sales – this time around. 

Rupert Murdoch, Those who live by the sword

By John C. Dyer, UK Correspondent

On 11 Feb 2012 the “hackgate” cancer besetting Rupert Murdoch’s media empire metastasized.

Damage from revelations concerning hacking at the News of the World had appeared under control, if not in total remission, following its demise. The Parliamentary select committee ceased its inquiry. The Leveson hearing spread the pain, embarrassment, and most importantly, the attention across all of Fleet Street.  Murdoch receded from center stage.

But in the meantime 130 police investigators were quietly sifting through 300 million emails turned over to them by News International’s internal review body, as well as investigating spin off leads. 

11 Feb 2012 big news shook journalism. It virtually exploded across Twitter. Subsequently it found its way into the media of both the UK and US.  Early the morning of the 11th of February police dramatically arrested 8 persons in connection with allegations of public official corruption. The public officials included not only police, but 1 Ministry of Defence civilian and 1 serving military officer. 

In the UK police do not release names pending an actual decision by the Crown Prosecution Service to charge. But what the police did release was explosive. It was all tied to The Sun, Rupert Murdoch’s flagship newspaper in the UK. These arrests brought the total of Sun journalists arrested to 10.  The arrestees included award winning and senior journalists and editors. 

The hackgate scandal had already claimed every major figure at News of the World, including Andy Coulson (then the Prime Minister’s spin doctor) and Rebecca Brooks Wade (who was editor at both News of the World and The Sun).  It may still claim James Murdoch, one of Rupert Murdoch’s sons, if prosecutors conclude he misled Parliament in testimony before a select committee.

Once again the focus of public attention shifted to Rupert Murdoch and the news empire that has so long dominated the journalistic and political scenes in the UK (and, perhaps to a lesser extent, the US).

Reaction among Sun journalists was swift. Across the staff, although they had not been personally arrested or accused, Sun journalists reacted with obvious defensiveness, anger and fear. Twitter buzzed with rumours of wholesale “civil war” between journalists and management.  Major newspapers confirmed those rumours in days to come in an unaccustomed airing of journalistic angst.  

Rupert Murdoch reacted with equal swiftness, and specifically to the unrest.  The Sun has been his flagship paper, the paper by which he had first penetrated the UK market, the paper of largest circulation in the UK.   Murdoch announced he would head to London to personally take charge of sorting out the crisis. 

Arriving 17 Feb, Murdoch immediately sent an email to staff; then met with them. The email was in two obvious parts.  The first part was Murdoch to his troops. The second part was lawyer speak, explaining why News Corp had to cooperate with the investigation.  The Murdoch bit sought to unreservedly assure staff that those arrested would be allowed to return to work, that he would stand by them, that he would not close The Sun as he had the News of the World. In fact, he planned to unveil a Sunday edition in the near future. The second bit - nevertheless expressed in lawyer speak - demonstrated corporate determination to cooperate fully with the investigation.   Murdoch promised to remain in London for the duration to lead The Sun’s “fight back” amid rumours of a pending major announcement by the Met (Scotland Yard) the weekend of the 17th.

Not the Seventh Cavalry

Not everyone was satisfied.  Not everyone saw Murdoch’s swoop into town aboard his personal jet as the 7th Cavalry coming to the rescue. Many were dissatisfied and/or singularly unimpressed.

Honeymoon in America Off the Beaten Track in and about Woodland, California, Part 2

By John C. Dyer, UK Correspondent

(This is the second of a two-part photo story by John C. Dyer.  The first can be found here.) 

Davis, California

  The City of Davis is best known as the home of the University of California, Davis a world class institution. But it is also a marvelous place to visit in its own right, especially appealing to those who like a traditional city center and village atmosphere. (Photos left: "Village House" and "Detail Village Garden" by John C. Dyer, August 2011). (Photo right "City Street" by John C. Dyer, August 2011)

It is at once charmingly quaint  (Photos left: "Tea house," "Tea for Two," and  "Orange Square" by John C. Dyer, August, 2011).  

 

 

 

Davis is the home to a busy Farmer’s Market, one of the first in the modern Farmer’s Market movement, featuring entertainment as well as veggies for its many customers.  But of course, the University is never far from sight. (Photos right: "Uni student" and "Farmers Market Scene by John C. Dyer, 2011).

 You really could not make Davis up, but to the English eye it offers all that a town centre should, small local shops and restaurants, walking and biking the norm and the Unitrans double decker, vintage, iconic London Routemaster buses.  The farmers’ market is very impressive after the cholesterol loaded offerings of a much smaller market in St Annes. 

University of California, Davis

The campus of the University of California is a delight to visit.  Cork Oaks shade its central square .  Multiple sculptures intrigue the walker (Photos left: UCD campus and photos right:  Intrigue, Using Your Head and Shoe by John C. Dyer, August 2011). The campus consciously connects with England, using London buses for transport and decorating the station with an old Telephone Booth.   Putah Creek winds through campus. (Photo left: "Phone Box," by John C. Dyer, August 2011.

 UC Davis' Horticultural Heritage

The University displays its horticultural heritage with a breathtaking display of trees, plants, and flowers buzzing with bees. 

(Photos above: "Beezy," "Purple Whisps," "Pink on Pond,"by John C. Dyer, August 2011)

Photos right: "Delicacy" "Fire bush," "Redwood," "The Rose," "Trumpets," by John C. Dyer, August 2011.)

  

Labour Day saw a handful of students and very little bike action.  Two days later it was no longer safe to walk in a daydream for cyclists asserting their right to the cycle paths and young people swarming around the town and campus. We bid adieu as the students began to arrive for the Fall.

Biology 101: A Valentine for Girls and Women in Pakistan and Afghanistan

By Patricia Lee Sharpe

Picture it: Valentine’s Day.  Bulbul Khan has set aside his AK-47.  He’s wrapped his curls in his best turban with its elegant long tail.  He’s presenting a box of chocolates (or maybe a box of locally-made halwah adorned with silver leaf) to his wife (or wives, as the case may be). And she (or one of them) takes the first bite!  Talk about fantasy! 

Heartfelt Heresy

Some years ago this lewd Western custom known as Valentine’s Day had begun to penetrate the urban centers of Pakistan.  Book stores displayed greeting cards embellished with hearts and ribbons and proclaiming, “I love you.” Hotels held dances.  People invited their friends to parties, openly.  And speaking of romance, the idea of love marriages was under debate, even if the practice wasn’t widespread.  Most marriages in Lahore no less than Kabul were parentally arranged, but increasingly the girl and boy were getting a say in the choice of a lifelong partner.  They could even attend a movie, together, before the wedding. 

Ah, but could they be trusted to—or not to—well, you know what.  Biology 101.

No Eye Candy Either

Which is why certain Muslims abhor even eye contact between nubile boys and girls, and the influence of such conservative Is- lam has burgeoned in recent years.   If you want to party these days, in urban Pakistan, if you want to gyrate to rock or listen to North Indian classical music and have a little whiskey or sherab (bootleggers don’t lack for customers), it’s all hush! hush! behind closed doors and windows.  A raid by rowdy self-appointed monitors of morals isn’t inconceivable

So that small opening for kitchy Valentine’s Day romance is closing.  Even in Karachi, young men and women occupying the same park bench and casually talking to one another have been asked to produce their marriage certificates.  Recently this made for a TV reality show gimmick.  Not everyone in the TV audience was horrified. 

Life or Love

In fact, life for women in many sections of Karachi never has been much better than life in the tribal areas or Afghanistan, from which their families may have migrated.  As ever, a girl who casts an innocent glance in the direction of a male she isn’t married or blood-related to (though cousins may be suspect, too) isn’t going to get chocolates from anyone on Valentines Day.  She’ll get acid in her face.  From her brother.  Or maybe her nose will be cut off. By her father. Or maybe she’ll be slaughtered by a posse consisting of her husband, father, brothers and uncles. And  the police and the courts, most likely, will look the other way.  Not only has that one wayward glance dishonored all the menfolk, it has set a bad example for other women.  As for NGOs that try to help the few battered women who dare to seek refuge, their founders and volunteers aren’t paranoid to fear for their own lives and looks.

All in all, too many females in Afghanistan and Pakistan are owned lock, stock and barrel by the males in their lives, and the lock isn’t metaphorical.  Their homes are jails.  Their minds are, too, since they’re largely denied the education that might lead them to claim some rights.  All females?  Well, maybe only 75% or so.  But that’s more than enough, isn’t it? 

How powerful it is, a vagina—virginal or otherwise—in Sindh, in Punjab, in Balouchistan, in the Northern tribal areas, in Afghanistan, in parts of India!  Stuffed into that one all-too-accessible bit of female anatomy is the honor of all the men in the family, whose honor—this would be laughable if it weren’t tragic—remains intact if they lie, steal, murder or rape. Oh, yes, a vagina is an open necked sack that’s guarded by unrelenting male jealousy and suspicion, lest the wrong sperm invade.  As for the lucky egg, it's ready and willing.  Biology 101.

The Deadly Boys-Are-Better Syndrome

But even if there’s no doubt about its daddy, the wrong kind of baby—or, worse, babies—better not emerge from that vagina.  A proper female interior is a boy baby-making machine.  A woman who produces a boy might just get that box of candy. 

However, if she produces nothing but girl babies, a woman may be in real trouble. More of the male honor stuff.  A guy without sons doesn’t get respect.  So the non-son-producing wife is divorced,  supplemented with another potential boy baby-maker, or, all too often, bumped off.  If she’s allowed to live as wife #1, she may be worked to death like a household slave.  No rights.  No privileges. Certainly no candy. 

Some Pakistani women aren’t even safe if they emigrate to Canada.  Recently, in Ontario, a Pakistani immigrant, his second wife and his mother contrived to kill his first wife as well as the girls she’d given birth to.  All were found dead, in a car, in a lake.  An accident, said the defense.  The Canadian court didn’t buy it.  The murderer is in jail now. So are his female accomplices.

I wonder how it feels to make a marriage, voluntarily or otherwise, with a man who’s killed his first wife for not producing boys?  Ghoulish, isn’t it?  Especially if the lady knows Biology 101, which she may not, as things now stand. 

The Guys Are Guilty

Call me me ethnocentric here, but there are many cherished customs that deserve to die.  And you’d think that this one of blaming the woman for being infertile or producing girls is a custom that would have died a natural death more than a century ago. 

England’s Henry VIII would have made a great tribal sheik.  He kept killing wives to get sons.  He can’t be liked for it, but there is an extenuation.  In his time neither he nor anyone else knew that the gender of a child is determined by the sperm—or that a woman can’t get pregnant by her husband if the dear boy has a low sperm count.

Actually,  Pakistanis aren’t losing much by missing out on the hokey romance element that’s exploited on Valentine’s Day in America.  The February 14 con works like all those other “special” days—Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Secretary’s Day, etc.  A box of chocolates.  Some flowers.  Lunch with the boss or dinner with hubby.  As if such tokens could make up for lesser treatment over the remaining 364 days of the year.     

Teach Biology

So, on Valentine’s Day, what I really wish for the women in those seriously misogynist areas of South Asia is that all children would be forced to take Biology 101 and have the well-established  facts of procreation beaten into their culturally resistant heads.  Especially this little fact: sperm are the sex determiners.  Boys need to know this, so they won’t grow up to brutalize their wives for producing female offspring.  But girls also need to know where boys come from.  They need to know there’s no reason to feel guilty and deserving of punishment when they hear the words, “It’s a girl.”

Honeymoon in America Off the Beaten Track in and about Woodland, California

By John C. Dyer, UK correspondent

(This is the first of two off-the-beaten track  photo stories by John C. Dyer.  His marriage and honeymoon took place August 2011. Several photos were taken by his wife, Victoria Buchan Dyer and are so identified.  Enjoy.)

Woodland is a long way from Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire. It is located near Sacramento in California’s huge central valley.  Probably not anyone else’s first choice for a honeymoon. But ours was delightful and rich with memory making moments. 

We chose Woodland for family. My daughter and grandchildren live there.  So does the brother of Victoria’s  American “sister.”  

I had not seen my Woodland family for some time. Victoria had never met them.  I arranged for my son to fly in from Seattle, making the occasion a family reunion.   

Victoria had not seen her “sister” (an exchange student in Victoria’s childhood home in Dorset) or her “sister’s” mother and brother in ages.

As it happened, Victoria’s brother’s daughter and my granddaughter are friends.   It was all a happy coincidence. This happy coincidence gave me the opportunity to introduce Victoria to my past haunts.

In describing our experiences to you, the toughest decisions have been what to leave out. Let’s start with my experience of trying to enter the country on a British passport.

Security

Sadly, I cannot show photos of exciting bits of our journey. Security, both at the train stations and the airports overrode our best photographic intentions.

The interesting thing was how much more cumbersome security is for a Brit entering the US than for a Yank entering Britain. I found this out by accident.  In a senior moment I thought the US Embassy had told me that I had to enter the US on my British passport.  Other way around. Before a friendly US TSA agent clarified, I had gone through an electronic Visa, 4 passport checks and 2 luggage checks. Victoria had gone through a pat down.  Coming into Britain I had just gone through one of each and no one other than Victoria touched me.  

The friendly US TSA agent also explained an unexpected benefit - as my wife, Victoria would not need a green card.   But it was not until we were safely back in Lancashire before Victoria breathed again. She kept expecting a Border Patrol agent to demand she produce a green card.  It is quite usual for a Brit entering the US to wait in line, fingers crossed hoping they will not give the wrong answer to a simple question and be immediately deported.

Sacramento 

Many tourists visit Old Sacramento, especially during Jazz Festival each May.   Old Sacramento features many fine restaurants, including the Firehouse  and the Rio City Cafe to name just two.  (Photos right "Old Sacramento" by John C. Dyer  and "Old Sacramento Exit" by Victoria Buchan Dyer, August 2011) 

We did visit Old Sacramento and ate at the Rio City Cafe, which overlooks the confluent Sacramento and American Rivers. These rivers etch Sacramento, joining just to the North of Old Sacramento.  (Photos left of "Firehouse Restaurant" and "Rio Cafe" Sacramento, CA  by Victoria Buchan Dyer, August 2011)

The Reign of the Stateswoman Queen turns 60 as Britain Suffers a Winter of Social Discord

By John C. Dyer, UK correspondent

5 Feb 2012 marked the kickoff of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, to be celebrated throughout the coming year.  6 Feb 2012 was the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne.

On her accession the young Elizabeth dedicated herself to serve her people. For 60 years through governments of every political persuasion, she has maintained a constant dignity in public and reputed adept private counsel behind the scenes.  Literally thousands of visits to every corner of the globe have contributed to national pride and a national sense of well being, as have her quiet dignity in moments of great personal and national adversity. 

The Queen, a great force for stability as well as its symbol, nevertheless presides, through no fault of her own I might add, over an increasingly troubled land beset by social discord beneath which often seems a placid surface to the rest of the world.

31 Jan 2012, the Queen, pursuant to the recommendation of a Whitehall committee, stripped Fred Goodwin of his knighthood.

In stripping Goodwin the Committee set a new precedent. He had not been convicted of any crime or been guilty of any offense comparable to those of others who had been similarly dishonoured in the past.  By 5 Feb Goodwin had also resigned his role with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. That he held such a post and had not been removed from it at the same time his knighthood had been stripped reflects the sudden onset of the new ethics.

On 6 Feb the management of Network Rail chose to waive their annual bonus for the pot of money to be redirected into financing safety measures.

Discontent with bankers and the banks has simmered ever since 2008. But recently anger has been building. Politicians, both on the Left and the Right of the political spectrum have tried to mount the wave, like surfers encountering an Australian “big one.”  Goodwin’s departure and the curbing of the bonus awarded new RBS boss Hestor seem to have potentiated rather than curbed the wave.

1 Feb 2012, 36 days into the Leveson inquiry into press ethics (or the lack thereof) and  its appropriate form of regulation, the Daily Mail published a cartoon by “Mac,” entitled “Rise of the Black Squirrel.” The cartoon appeared on page 17.  The cartoon showed a number of black animals perched on a tree and listening to another that says, “I have a dream.” In case the reader did not understand the message, a billboard appears identifying the group as the “black squirrels.” On 6 Feb the Daily Mail's CEO, Paul Darce appeared before Leveson arguing for continued self regulation of the industry. 

On 5 Feb 2012 hackers took over The Daily Mail’s recipe page. While not specifically precipitated by the cartoon, the hackers cited the Mail’s alleged racism among other reasons for the attack.  URLs have been deleted in case of virus attached.

Racism is very much an issue of the day.

On 3 February England football’s FA governing body dumped John Terry as team captain during the pendency of criminal charges against him for abusing another player with a racist taunt. He was the second major player in recent weeks to be disciplined for racist comments. Luis Suarez from Liverpool is currently serving an 8 game ban after the FA concluded he had used a racist comment with regard to another player.

Suarez’s coach, the famous Kenny Dalglish, maintains that the FA dealt unfairly with Suarez.  as does Chelsea Coach Villas-Boas with regards to Terry being stripped of his England Captaincy. On 6 Feb England Manager Fapio Capello argued that Terry should not have been stripped unless and until convicted by a court.

Critics, on the other hand, pointedly ask what, then does racism mean if not this. Critics note that public statements in the heat of battle reflect an unacceptable and pervasive private attitude that must be quashed.

Perceived racism was almost certainly a major factor in last summer’s riots, described previously on WhirledView. (http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview/2011/10/what-you-were-not-told-about-the-london-riots-of-2011.html)   Anti Semitic attacks were the given reason for the government awarding £2 million to bolster security at Jewish schools and attacks on Muslims are also becoming common.

The reasons for this social tension are complex. They should not be oversimplified.