Egypt, shades of Tiananmen

Egypt, shades of Tiananmen

It is time to recognize Arab countries have entered a new era. People power is sweeping across the Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen. They have all suffered the same fate with potent rulers paying partial attention to their countries’ fate.

Dictators have stayed in power, some over 40 years. An autocrat has ruled Egypt for 30 years, a country with a population of over 80 million. Lack of political freedom; controls and constrictions, abuses and torture abound.

Excessive greed of the rulers, and their corrupt government’s inability to tackle economic problems has escalated this situation caused utter chaos, placed the citizens in fear and poverty; brought on inflation, food and fuel shortages, rising prices and unemployment.

The Egyptian authorities may crush the movement for democracy. Rallies and protests might even be suppressed for a time with the U.S.-funded military tanks in a bloodbath. They may block out all communications, shut down satellites, block the Internet and mobile phones, place curfews but as we have seen the movement is only snowballing. It’s time to recognize the unity of the people. With incredible bravery and determination the protesters keep coming.

The Egyptian people are not asking their government to reform. They are not asking Mubarak to step down or his government be dissolved with him forming a new one. They want Mubarak and his government out, gone. They are demanding an end to the entire autocratic, repressive regime they have endured for even longer than Mubarak’s rule 30-year rule. They want democracy not just a reform of the current government with new promises.

Western governments have wished, over a period of time, for gradual political reform fearing breakdown of stability in the region. Too late now, reform has been too slow coming, stability broken. Much damage been caused by the last Bush administration with its erroneous foreign policy that viewed solution with wars and military spending bringing about and escalating hatred and terrorism from the Muslim extremists.

Now the world must wait and see how the vacuum will be filled and what extremism, if any, will arise.

Sharks look out!

Humans are circling you, closing in.

We human beings, unlike other animals, seek to eat fellow creatures not only to satisfy hunger but for the taste and for the fun of it. We demand and create food purely for pleasure. And for that pleasure we torture and kill over 100,000 million sharks worldwide. Shark fin soup is a status symbol, it is expensive. One can pay up to $400 for a bowl of soup. It is is neither proven nutritious nor tasty without the help of additives. We have cultivated a fake delicacy, a designer dish.

Sharks caught and finned are thrown back into the sea to suffer and die horrifically. Unable to swim, bleeding and desperate, they sink to the bottom, and sometimes take days to die. The shark meat does not fetch a high enough price to bring ashore. Big and often illegal operations deprive smaller fishing communities of their livelihood and shark meat that is their diet. We are depleting the oceans of these creatures leading to a dangerous imbalance of the marine ecosystem.

We, in Hong Kong, are inventive in many fields, and enjoy the status of being the best and the first and the foremost internationally. We also love giving our selves names. I can be Leela for a few years and then choose to be Rainbow, Sparkle, Jealousy, or Standoff.

We are ‘World City’, whether we chose the name or it was given to us, I am not sure but a name we take pride in. And as such ‘A World City’ we boast of many things but one of our restaurants, Sun Tung Lok Restaurant being awarded a Three Star Michelin Prize on 3rd December 2010 is disgusting news however random the choice happened to be. Sun Tung Lok is one of hundreds of restaurants in Hong Kong that still take pride in offering Shark Fin Soup.

Hong Kong is now the global hub of shark fin trade. It is reported Hong Kong accounts for up to 80% of world trade, yes, Hong Kong, a mere dot on the world map. We imported 9,300 tons of dried and frozen shark fins last year.

A walk through the Western District of Hong Kong reveals the biggest variety of dried goods outlets, grocery and medicinal shops: dried fish and shrimps; dried snakes, turtles, frogs, abalone; sea horse and sea-cucumber; bats, ducks and birds, crocodiles; and creatures quaint and rare are on display. This is all very exciting until we come to the disgusting shark fin section of hundreds of shark fin outlets. Recently this area has also become a processing centre. Stretches of pavements drying defrosted fins invade much of the district with the reeking putrid smell of rotting flesh.

Spain, Norway, Britain, France, Portugal and Italy are in the fray, turning a blind eye to the trade. Other fin traders are Taiwan, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, United States, Yemen, India, Japan, Mexico and insatiable China.

Dolphin meat is often used as shark bait. Whales, sea turtles and other sea creatures are caught up in the shark nets.

Time we stopped this trade, time we respected sharks.

Let the sharks live, they have been here for over 400 million years.

Pakistan Floods August 2010

One Smiling Face

It is being named as the worst floods in living memory of Pakistan. There is desperate need for rescue, shelter, clean water and food. Aid is rushing in from all over world with relief to help victims of this flood disaster.

It is now the 2nd week into the disaster and Pakistan is still only in the middle of the monsoon season. The floods have spread to Pakistani Punjab, a vast grain growing region, and to Sind and part of Indian Ladak. To date 1,600 lives have been lost, and those are only that could be accounted for. More than 12 million people are displaced. 80% of the country’s food stock has been washed away, water logged or contaminated. Access to most places gone with roads and bridges washed away. Villages totally submerged. The people are now exposed to waterborne diseases.

Pictures of families wading with children and possessions on their heads, shoulder deep in water fill TV screens as the rest of world watches in horror.

But amidst all this there is joy: A smiling face we see. The face of the country’s leader in London, President Asif Ali Zardari smiling for the cameras .

One Pakistani
Not present
Not crying for his people
Not experiencing the suffering
Not counting the dead
Of his Pakistan.

Hiroshima 65th Anniversary

Hiroshima Remembered
Today let there be this request:
Please bequeath the universe to our children intact, in peace, and in love.
Our moment has come to disarm nuclear weapons.

A NEW KIND OF PIRACY

Attack on Aid Providers

The recent attack on a flotilla of aid ships in international waters shocked the world. Israel knew the ships had set off in spite of their warning. Those volunteering ships, aid, crew and passengers on the flotilla also knew Israel objected but nobody expected the Israeli Government would act so high handed in trying to abort the charitable mission .

It was too cowardly an act and too foolish and dangerous of the Israel soldiers to descend on to the ship of civilians before dawn, in the dark, frightening them into defensive action. Imagine a ship full of men, woman and children who see naval boats speed towards them and helicopters arrive overhead from which commandos in battle uniform rappel with machine guns and land in their midst. Did not the soldiers expect any reaction? With this act they managed to kill and wound, and confiscate not only the ship but also personal property. What a disaster!

Politicians, statesmen and stateswomen around the world were outraged but like a lot of mealy mouthed puppets what most seem to do is talk, words and more words: ‘this is deeply regrettable, a tragic loss of life, this is ridiculous, intolerable, unacceptable’ and they keep spewing a whole lot of pathetic words. We need action. Will punishment be meted out for the atrocities?

If the Israelis fear weapons being hidden with the aid material brought in an international body could be set up to inspect the goods coming in.

Recently British and Australian passports were forged in Israel and Israeli assassins killed Hamas commander Mahmoud al Mabhouh.

When US Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel to talk of curbing further build up of Israeli homes in occupied land the Israeli government snubbed the US and the whole world by announcing new plans for expansion of more than 1,600 homes.

These two incidents alone show how little respect Israel has for rest of the world.

In December 2008 with the aim of halting rockets from Gaza Israel launched a three week war with the Palestinians who had no planes, no bombs, no tanks, no modern artillery. 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 13 Israeli attackers died. A year on they have reported no success story, and in spite of Israel’s claim of allowing aid they see fit, 1.5 million Palestinians, cramped into a narrow strip of land, still lack food, clean water, medical facilities, schools and housing. If the Israeli government was as compassionate as it tries to tell the world it should by now have built up the infrastructure it destroyed.

I hope this last atrocious Israeli attack will result in serious action being taken against this unholy government. Let there be accountability in action, not just in talk.

It is now time to ask – Where Israel’s borders are?

Flying Business Class

He called me ‘Sir’

It is not often I fly business class these days.

When I ran my antique business it was a viable proposition, besides the fact I had more luggage allowance I could also freight suitcases unaccompanied.

Some progress has been made over the years with regards to single women travelling. It is good to see that women business class passengers, especially me, a 5th. class citizen, do not get the ‘you-have-no-business-in-this-class’ look, or a quick once over, to see, which man was foolish enough to have picked me up. Here I must explain how I’m 5th class – priority-wise there is white man, coloured man, white woman, other, and then me, the dark one. But these days I get the same lovely charming smile and welcome as the other species, and good service.

Of all the trips I have made over the years the recent one stands out as quite unique. In a two seat arrangement I settle in comfortably next to a Chinese gentleman with the aura of an iceberg and the look of an active volcano. A beautiful young stewardess comes over and kneels by me, looks lovingly at Mr. IcebergVolcano and me as if we are a honeymoon couple and says ‘Welcome aboard Mr. and Mrs. Panikar’. Noticing my look of surprise that both my deceased parents are travelling unknown to me, and the scowl from the male passenger next to me, she quickly glances down her clipboard. She says, ‘Oh, Ms. Panikar, what would you like to have to drink.’ I order my standard champagne. Note no shock registered, no hidden smirk. She stands up with much grace and walks away, not bothering with my fellow passenger. The stewardess on the other isle would serve him.

When it is time for lunch, we have starters served individually with the flourish of a Michelin standard restaurant. Main course. A tall, handsome steward, collapses down to my sitting height with a tray for my selection, ‘Your Food Sir’ he says. I look at tray offered, three dishes: Chicken and rice, Seafood and pasta, Beef and noodles. And I say ‘Vegetarian’. And he says ‘Yes, Sir,’ and walks away not saluting. Everyone is extremely courteous and the staff rustle up a vegetarian meal. Quite inedible, but that’s not the point.

After lunch I settle down to reading my Kindle, there’s a bit of a turbulence and an airhostess rushes up to me and tells me I am not allowed to use my computer (Kindle not connected and lighter than a paperback).

Plane landed, trip over, we file out. One hostess hangs on to the dividing curtain with one hand preventing economy passengers charging out. She clutches her mobile phone with the other and is furiously chatting while the passengers squeeze past her.

In my many years of air-travel I was of the opinion in-flight magazines are complimentary. I could be wrong about this. From time to time I have taken my copy home. This time as I exit the plane the other stewardess at the gate thanks me for flying with them and then snatches the magazine off my hand. I am stunned, stop short in my tracks, smile and ask, ‘May have it’. She is sweet, smiling too. She gives it to me, ‘Sure’.

Wonder what creative changes I can expect on my next trip.
Guess flying could be boring without these incidents, my mini adventures.

President Barack Obama

Dear President BARACK OBAMA

Congratulations on your successful first year.

Against all odds

In his inauguration speech President Obama informed America and the world: ‘Challenges are real. They are serious and many. And they will not be easily solved in a very short time.’

But he has accomplished much of what he set out to do and in a short time. St. Petersburg Times, the Pulitzer Prize-winning , fact-checking service reports in detail: http://www.politifact.com/

When he came to office he inherited a horrendous legacy of a country in crisis, and the collapse of world economy, and hate and anger at home and abroad.

In the one short year he has the financial institutes working, created transparency, travelled widely not only attending meeting after meeting at home and abroad, but has met world leaders in their own countries or at the White House to redeem the love and respect America had lost in the past few years. His representatives have gone abroad to renew good will and trade connections.

But the one year certainly seems a desperately long time to the opponents of President Obama.

The cry goes out: close Guantanamo but don’t bring the men we capture, our prisoners to our shores; get rid of Al Qaeda but don’t spend our money and don’t send out our soldiers; we want healthcare but don’t tax us; create jobs, but don’t anger countries from whom we buy what we can produce locally. One after another mealy mouthed screams continue.

Since the election it would seem the Republicans are keen to divide the country, it’s us and him. Smear campaigners work overtime, digging deeper and deeper. Hyper-hysterical media feed the public with out-of-context irrelevant and false information. What weird democracy is this!

Perhaps it would be easier for the Republicans and the Tea-baggers and the Christian Fundamentalists if President Obama did not have a exotic name, and if he’d been born in the boondocks in USA somewhere. And perhaps it would even be a little tolerable if he’d was a slave son. Adversaries and armed rebellions and assassination plots would be fewer.

Not a coalition for the betterment of the people but an ignorant, ‘demented, vindictive’ opposition to democracy is what I see.

Hamas Israel – the balance

I appreciate the heartfelt defense and the passionate plea of Amikam Levy, consul general of Israel (2 January, Israel has a right to protect its own citizens). It is horrific that an endless number of mortar shells and rockets are launched into Israel where the citizens live in terror and uncertainty. But I find the letter intended to enlighten Hong Kong people seriously flawed, unbalanced and simplistic.

Over years Israel has split and driven Palestinian families out of their homes and farms. Numbers killed, maimed, and men and women and boys imprisoned is huge in comparison to those killed or harmed by the Palestinian movements or Hamas. Israel and countries flaunting democracy refuse to recognize Hamas, a legally elected body. Severe sanctions have been placed on the people. A different result to the elections could have taken place had not the Israeli government curtailed the election process by closing checkpoints. The Palestinians are only allowed access and exit though Israel controlled check-points at which Palestinians spend hours queuing up with passes. The Palestinians have become a society dependent on aid and outside help which in turn is dependent on Israel’s whims to close borders and checkpoints whenever it suspects smuggling of weapons could be taking place under the ever watchful detection of control masters. Access to power, fuel, food, water and medicine and even education are in the hands of the Israelis. Is it any wonder illegal tunnels have cropped up connecting Gaza to the Egyptian border? Endless numbers of embargos have deprived the people of all basic needs and have left them without self-reliance and dignity.

United Nations General Assembly on November 29, 1947, divided the region into two states, one Arab and one Jewish, a national home for the Jewish people created. Jerusalem was to be designated an international city. On May 14, 1948 the state of Israel declared independence and this was followed by a war with the surrounding Arab states, which refused to accept the plan foisted on them. Since then the region has seen nothing but this dance of war in which Israel was able to continuously expand Jewish borders beyond those in the UN Partition Plan. These wars have resulted in decades of severe poverty and unemployment and violence for the Palestinian people.

It was very kind of Israel to return Gaza to its people after 40 years of occupation in which time they did little to improve the lives of the people. The Gazans have been prisoners in their own land with Israel controlling all exit and entrance points: sea, land and air. For the last two years Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have endured daily crises over shortages of everything especially when food when aid is held up and not allowed in.

In November 2008 Ismail Haniyah said that Hamas was willing to accept a Israel long-term hudna, or truce requesting Israel recognize the Palestinians’ national rights, recognize the 1949 armistice lines and withdraw itself from all Palestinian territories including the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel illegally occupied and has settled the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Palestinian territories) for years driving away families and destroying their livelihood. This long-term displeasure of Palestinians about their land donated by outside forces so the Israel can be born is not going to be wiped out with weapons.

Might of military power is on the side of Israel. Israel has the third or forth most powerful army in the world. Israel has Satellite control and GSP systems to check on movements of all Palestinians helping it pinpoint its targets. Israel is a nuclear power but refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or allow inspection of its nuclear facilities. U.S. is its largest aid provider and also gives billions of dollars worth of military aid. It receives help from the US in the way military technology know how. Air fire power of F-16 fighter jets, Apache helicopter gunships, Arrow missile tanks and other weaponry are supplied and subsidized by the U.S., funded by US taxpayers who unknowingly help an illegal occupation, expansion of settlement projects, and gross human rights violations against the Palestinian civilian population. Financial aid from U.S. Foreign Assistance Act specifies that all receivers must account on how the money is spent but the only country that does not do so is Israel. U.S. closes a blind eye and funds this brutal repression and colonization to maintain its imperialism in the region.

Against the military might and precision targeted attacks of the Israelis the Palestinians throw stones against tanks and launch primitive and short-range rockets from back yards. If this is not so tragic it could be hilarious.

Israelis seeks peace, no peace can come about if Israel refuses to sit down with Hamas leaders to discuss it. It is true Hamas refused to recognize Israel as a sovereign nation at one time. Not surprising knowing what has gone on. Hamas and the rest of the Palestinians know that their land was negotiated away by outsiders and handed over to Israelis to make a homeland for the Jews who instead of showing a little gratitude have become aggressive oppressors.

Poverty fear and hatred is rife in the hearts of the Palestinians many of whom have known no lives except as refugees. The young see no future; they do not even have a present. What kind peace does arrogant Israel backed by America and its allies expect after what we have seen in this ‘let’s-wipe-them-out” war. The Gazans have had their life sucked out. The horror of current war will have an immense impact on the psychology of Gazan families.

If Israel can stop the Hamas rockets after this current slaughter of the Palestinian people I hope Israel has the decency to rebuild the country and give them back their lives and their freedom and their dignity.

To the new President

SCMP winning essay:

To the new President

How the US can improve its standing in the international community.

The US has the biggest influence in the world. It leads in many fields: invention, science, education, music, films, and others. Much of the world desires to ape the American life style.

By electing a black president, a man not from an elite dynasty family, the US has already improved its standing in the international community. US has made a big leap towards coming down from its pedestal to equate to the majority of not only the Americans but the rest of the world.

Much of the angst created abroad in the past years has to be erased. A new respect needs be created. In healing itself the US will begin to help the world to look up to it as the big brother.

A financial crisis is now staring the world in the face. Recession can be shortened if America gets back on track and comes up with solutions to reduce its ten trillion debt. It needs to save some of the large industries from going under and check the money guzzling stock market and property market and look for ways to reform. It has to create jobs that will in turn increase spending to benefit world trade. Until America’s problems are sorted out the poorer countries will find it very difficult to get bank loans. From America came the global financial crisis and it has to solve its own problems before the rest of the world to start to move to put their banks and business and property in order.

The world needs to reverse the effects of climate change. It hardly needs reminding how the last US government had scoffed at the idea the planet is dangerously heating up. Melting icecaps increase flooding and lead to loss of low-lying regions and islands around the world, reduce the world’s greenery and endanger animals in the wild and cause migration of people and animals from deserts formed by dried up lakes and rivers. America’s refusal to join the rest of the world to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and its refusal to sign agreements, and walking away from debates on climate change has set a bad example to China and India and other countries and has put the world in jeopardy. But it’s hugely encouraging too, that the biggest defender of climate change has come from the US. Al Gore has given concrete proof that the world is in dire straits. It hardly bears repeating now, with how much urgency, the US has to become the leader in helping to arrest, reduce, and maybe even reverse the disasters created by climate change.

Being the largest consumer of world’s resources the US has to lead in change, not continue as a throwaway society pandering to waste, but change its ways and set an example. The world has to see that this developed country uses less — uses less fuel, wastes less energy, consume less food, packages less and enjoys fewer must haves.

US has been the leader in science, research, invention, space exploration and health studies. Many projects for betterment of life and health were either held up or stopped by the former government. It is time to change, to continue the advancement. US government needs to be firm about showing the world it is secular and remove religion from interfering with science as in the case of the origin of species. Groups at home and abroad that provide advice on abortion should lift bans on family planning. Aid and help should not come with conditions like insistence on celibacy before marriage. If the ban on abortion is lifted in the US many other countries will follow suit enabling a healthy legal alternative. The number of single mothers out-weigh single fathers, and whether they are divorced or never married majority of them live in great poverty or are unable to care for their children.

US is a generous country when it comes to aid to the world. But aid should not come with unreasonable or unworkable pre conditions, with strings attached. Often aid is tied up with having to give the largest contracts to US companies. This practice of giving on the one hand and taking away on the other, siphoning back much from the country’s wealth to which aid is given does not help country’s poor from whom land is often taken. Placing American contractors and businesses in lucrative positions in these countries should be changed to training people to run their own businesses. The US should also look into the companies that are on the continent of Africa, companies, that are involved in the extraction of oil, diamond and copper, that give little care for the people of the land and companies that use the land carelessly. These companies, having offered bribes to local heads of states, fleece the locals of their natural resources, pollute and poison their land and give very little in return to the poor.

Though the US touts free trade it does not in realty practice it. Trade is much tilted in America’s favour. The world now hopes and expects US as a more balanced trading partner. It has to ease some of the trade restrictions imposed on the so called third world countries, especially when it comes cultural imports of movies, dance, and music.

Terror is foremost in the American psyche since the attacks of 9/11. This has given the US government an excuse to attack sovereign nations. It should not take upon itself to interfere in other governments whether they are perceived to be lame or otherwise. Terror of the unknown has reduced America to place its justice system on suspicion, to imprison foreign nationals as terrorists without trial. It has shamelessly allowed helpless prisoners to be tortured and treated inhumanely. Terrorism has increased in the last seven years and the Afghanistan Pakistan border has become a hot bed of terrorist training. This can only be reduced if the US seriously considers increasing the standard of living of the people in this region. In most cases acts of terrorism is carried out in foreign countries where there is a big American military presence. Now the US is seen as an unjust and cruel government, an aggressor equal to the terrorist. The new government has much to accomplish to get back the world’s respect. Direct dialogue and diplomacy and tact is needed and the US must prepare to listen to advisers and co-operate to reduce imperious confrontation, sit down with no preconditions and talk to Iran and other so called enemies or axis of evil.

A change is needed in the foreign policy of the US. It must recognise democracies though they may not be solely in American style of democracy as in case of Hamas. It has to give less support to and be firmer with Israel to reduce the humanitarian catastrophe affecting the Palestinians. It needs to be more diplomatic with Russia and work closely with the South American countries and reduce its bullying tactics. It blatantly flaunts its relationship with China and yet punishes Cuba. It needs to show some fairness and accept Cuba as a communist country and lift sanctions. Promises made to North Korea need be carried out promptly. In the Iraq and Afghanistan the US needs to work harder to train the locals and withdraw its military presence. Military might, the greed to have a military foot in every country, creates military competition around the world. There has to be an arms reduction. The divide and rule policy in the name of defence has everyone on the edge of uncertainty. This policy has to go.

It is indeed a tall order for the US to improve its standing in the international community but the world looks forward to the new government with a wave of optimism and trust.

Let the healing begin and as Mr. Gordon Brown said let the US be “guided by truth.”

The Exchange

One soldier captured one wounded by Hamaz in return for Palestinian men, women and children in Israeli jails.

By any stretch of imagination a most disproportionate exchange. So who are these men and women in the Israeli prisons?

Most of them are those who have been dragged out by the Israeli soldiers from homes in the middle of the night or before dawn, or by surprise raids on farms and refugee camps on mere suspicion of wrong doing. Israeli armies enter Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps and carry out their atrocities killing and arresting.

Military power in the hands of the mighty made even mightier with the help of Bush and his government aided by the American Zionist Christians.

The children in Israeli prisons:

“Rakan Ayad Nasrat was arrested by Israeli forces one September on his way home to Jericho from Bethlehem.

“While in Israeli custody, Rakan has been sexually assaulted by a soldier, severely beaten by prison guards, threatened with electric shocks and subjected to long periods of solitary confinement.

“He has also tried to commit suicide four times.

“Rakan is 12 years old, and a prisoner in Israel.”

More than 95% of Palestinian child prisoners have no special facilities, or special treatment or privacy. Contrary to all international regulations the children are tortured, treated with inhumanity, and exposed to degradation and sexual abuse.

The Israeli youth is a minor until he reaches 18, the Palestinian youth in Israel is a minor until he is 16. When the Palestinian child prisoner reaches 16 he is tried as an adult prisoner.

Since the new Al Aqsa Intifada of September 2000 more than a 1,000 detained while they were children now continue to serve prison terms. About 90% of these children are guilty of THROWING STONES and therefore considered dangerous. They pose “Security Threats.”

More than 2,200 minors, guilty of security threats mainly have been imprisoned since the start of the Intifada.

Footnote:

Intifada literally means “shaking off,, to set free from Israeli oppression. The first Intifada started on 8th Dec 1987 when four Palestinian men queuing at a checkpoint into Gaza were crushed to death by an Israeli army transporter. The second Intifada started in Sept 2000 when Sharon with over 2,000 Israeli soldiers desecrated the Al Aqsa Mosque and killed 4 people.

Destruction of a Nation

The world watches as a humanitarian crisis escalates by the hour in Lebanon. For more than two weeks we have stood by as the country has been plunged into death and destruction. First the power plant destroyed cutting off electric supply, leaving civilians with no lighting, air-conditioners, power for water and sewage plants, no communication, and food rotting in fridges. From then on horror upon horror has befallen the innocent.

The Israelis, with full fire power backing from the US, have savagely destroyed the country and its people with the excuse of seeking out Hezbollah. The aerial bombardment has paralysed the country, airport disabled, roads destroyed, bridges blown and sea access has blocked by the Israeli navy. No escape for thousands, so escape for the poor, the old, the children and the disabled. Wounded cannot be moved and food and aid cannot be brought in. Even those who had the means to get out could not. Foreign governments managed to airlift and ship out those with foreign passports many of whom will be displaced persons in their own countries. Those who have fled have left behind families and friends.

The ones who have sought shelter in bunkers or refugee camps are not safe. Targeted bombing they call it. But the targets have been “miss-targets” or have these mistakes have been carried out purposely. Even when the targets were accurate more civilians were in line of fire than the Hezbollah. More than 700,000 civilians have been made homeless, thousands maimed and injured and close to 700 killed, not counting bodies under rubble in areas unsafe to get to. More than one third of the dead and injured are children.

And all this now for two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Two men in exchange for Lebanese prisoners languishing in Israeli jails.

Surely there are other ways of negotiating.

And Let There Be No Light

And Let There Be No Light.

City of Lights, a name we have claimed for ourselves in a region of power shortages, outages and brown-outs. Hong Kong has the highest number of neon lights in the region.

It is said August 8, the double 8s, of 2006 has been slated for light-out.

City of Darkness. Let’s do it.

Switch off all the lights except the essential ones, those needed for hospitals, traffic, air-control. Turn off the “neons.” Off with the lights in restaurants, offices, and homes. Yes, let’s plunge this polluted island into darkness for 5 to 10 minutes at sunset.

Drastic measure, drastic situation.

Yesterday, late afternoon, a huge pall of fog came up from the sea and obliterated the mountains of New Territory before moving in to blot out Central, Wan Chai, and Causeway Bay, bringing dusk too early, causing alarm.

People walk around wearing masks or with hands over their noses and mouths. News readers tell us not to our allow children out of class rooms, and the elderly and the sick are told not to go out of their homes. Hospitals fully occupied, doctors overworked, waiting rooms overflow. Children, lethargic, sit around in adult clinics, no room at the paediatrician. Sounds like science fiction, but science fiction it is not. It is Hong Kong in the throes of unprecedented pollution.

“Oh, what can we do,” say the politicians, wringing their manicured hands.
“The tourists won’t be coming to fill our coffers.” How illogical, how thoughtless! Can we first make sure our citizens are healthy before worrying about the tourists? Dead citizens cannot be there to receive them when the tourists decide to come.

Let us not take heart in the fact that other cities of the world are more polluted. Neither does it help us when we lie to ourselves by setting standards different from international ones, to measure low when moderate, moderate when high or severe.

Hong Kong is an island but pollution is not. Improving our air quality lies not only with us but also with our neighbours. Our own pollution constitutes about 30 % and the rest, that affects us, is from our immediate neighbours. To the north of us lies the vast continent, our mother-land. The regional air now is so heavy with pollutants that prevailing winds do not disperse our emissions any more. Let us not waste time and energy in blame. The authorities of all neighbouring regions must get together and sort this out, and now.

Let the silent and dark protest begin. Let us switch off the lights on August 8.

Remembering Hiroshima

Sasaki Sadako was given only twelve years on the wings of a thousand cranes.

Today on the wings of every child’s crane let there be this request:

“Please bequeath the universe to us intact, in peace, and in love. Let us live.”

Pet Dogs and Strays

Hong Kongers are great dog lovers. To many, dogs are nearly human, they love them and care for them and spend much time with them. There are also others who want to own pets and so choose to reside in the country side; that is in villages in the New Territories. They have exacting careers and put in long working hours with little time for themselves or their pets. Love and passion come in small doses mainly on week ends. Often their dogs are left in the care of maids who are employed to do household chores; and not to take dogs for long walks, bath and feed them and pick up poo after them.

Some dogs are left unattended either inside the homes, in balconies, or on roof tops. In the village where we live one neighbour left their five dogs on small balcony while they went to work, and overwork, and often came home close to midnight. The dogs barked all day. Most dog owners or their maids pay no attention when their dogs bark incessantly day and night.

There are also many inconsiderate neighbours who walk their dogs. They carry newspapers and plastic bags and look as if they are intent on cleaning up after their dogs. These pet lovers are happy to keep their homes and gardens clean and walk their dogs to someone else’s gate or path or parking lot and allow their pets to urinate and defecate. When their dogs have done their business the owners or maids delicately walk away with their precious pets and their newspapers and plastic bags.

Some dogs are left loose and vicious day and night. They spend their day having much fun attacking passers by and by night running wild with packs.

The problem of stray dogs is further aggravated by people who believe they are doing good, getting merit points in dog heaven, by going round their villages leaving large amounts of food for dogs. This practice not only feeds the dogs, tame and wild, but also encourages a large population of well fed rats.

Calling the Agricultural and Fisheries department to alert them of wild dog situation is a fun process; one is sent from one department to another until one comes back to the first person spoken to. One fine day the dog catchers did arrive in our village. Since I called them and they had my address they came, in their van, to a screeching halt outside my home, several men jumped out exceedingly noisily. One pulled out a large butterfly net while the others whipped out their mobile phones to check out the autheticity of the report made and the exact location. The three wild dogs that were resting outside my gate slunk away from right under their noses and right before their eyes. I admire the men’s style but not their dog-catching skills.

We still have a huge nuisance of barking dogs, dog poo in our parking lot, and the wild pack has now increased to seven.

Death of a Travellin’ Man

PP is not the People’s Princess this time, it’s the People’s Pope.

The people they came from far and wide, they crossed countries, they crossed continents. They waited, they vigilled, they prayed, they paid their respects. Catholics and others of religions not recognized, wanted him to stay a little longer, but unfortunately the prayers of millions could not be answered. The time had come and Pope Paul ll was called back to the Kingdom of God.

Being the top guy in the Catholic Church, the true church, he went straight to heaven. Even more of a guarantee of a direct route is the fact he died within eight days of Easter.

The Catholic Church is pretty flexible. In ancient times creating saints took centuries, and then it was reduced to decades. Pope John Paul II speeded up the sainthood process even more, and helped Mother Teresa along the fast track. And for Pope Paul ll let’s make it instant. We do not need the Devil’s Advocate this time. There have been enough miracles.

The Catholic Church, God’s elite club, moves with the times. These are modern times; the Church has revolutionized itself to fit the modern world.

On 16 October 1978, a non-Italian, a Polish pontiff, was elected for the first time in 450 years. The death of this Pope was announced by mobile phone text message at 9.37pm, just minutes after his death. Moving with the times.

For the Pope-a-rama funeral the international media shut down on other news for days. The world media gathered in the Holy See to give us minute-by-minute news of the proceedings and the vigil.

Not for the Catholic Church sackcloth and grass sandals. It is garments gilded and purple and scarlet. It is pomp and ceremony and tradition. Give the ordinary members and others a chance to take part in the Church’s rich heritage. Give the people a chance to add to their wealth, a wealth of memorabilia: commemorative T shirts and stamps, religious icons and rosaries, coins, souvenirs, trinkets and curios.

Catholicism is not just a religion. It is a country, one of the richest. It is the Vatican, the Holy See, all of 44 square km. Accumulation of priceless treasures makes up for the lack of natural resources.

The People’s Pope was a liberal pope. His concern for human rights, his stance against war and poverty, his willingness to meet with Islamic leaders, his desire to visit Communist countries and his love for humanity is globally recognized. But he has also left behind gargantuan challenges for the newly elected Pope.

Pope Benedict XVI has promised to be the “Listening Pope.” He will also have to look, look within the church.

He has to sort out the problems of gay priests and sex scandals and child molestation. He cannot set aside “the sins of some of our brothers.” Neither does the solution lie in millions of dollars paid out in settlements. Serious thought has to be given to celibacy, ordination of women priests, gay marriage, contraception, abortion, divorce, and remarriage of divorced church members. He has to rethink the Church’s views of Eastern Christian religions as not being Christian. He has to decide why his church is against Eastern mediation and yoga, both of which are older than the Catholic Church and now practiced by increasing numbers of Catholics.

But most serious of all is the church’s opposition to condoms. The solutions offered by the church for the prevention of AIDS are not practical. Millions of Christians die of AIDS in Africa, leaving behind millions of orphans. Catholic-dominated Brazil and the Philippines, where abortion is rampant, where birth control is archaic, where divorce is not officially recognized, are sinking deeper into poverty. They need immediate help.

Jesus was a great liberator. Let’s hope Pope Ratzinger Benedict XVI will follow suit and make a quick and sensitive shift in the Elite Club.

“Is truth determined by a majority vote, only for a new ‘truth’ to be ‘discovered’ by a new majority tomorrow?” Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, asked in an interview in 1996.

Sir, truth has been determined by a majority vote and discovered anew. You and your team please think well, think fast and come up with solutions.

These new challenges are the old ones.

History has its versions

The destructive protests and vandalism against Japanese property in China certainly seem to have had some go-head from the authorities. Correspondents say the scale of the disturbances is unusual for China, and indicates tacit official support for the protesters. A country that suppresses every little whisper of protest has allowed thousands to gather, scream their heads off, vandalise property and be seen having fun doing it all before the cameras; and all in the name of patriotism. One should now seriously wonder if a wasps’ nest has not been disturbed. The crazed behaviour of thousands of people this month will surely come back to haunt China in the future in one form or another. The masses have tasted “protest freedom.”

Facts seen by the “patriotic” doer and the facts seen by the ones done by vary. The “invaders” of Americas have their version and the native North and South Americans have their version. Australians have their version and the Aborigines theirs. Invaders and colonists in Africa have done their bit. America and Agent Orange have done it to Vietnam. Have Hiroshima and Nagasaki been forgotten, or the Khmer Rouge and the killing fields Cambodia? How accurately are these portrayed in the history books? Every warring and colonising power has committed atrocities and certainly glossed over or omitted the truth. The ones who suffered and the ones who died know the truth.

A few thousand of the Chinese protestors know the war atrocities, fewer have read the “history books” they are going hoarse about, and even fewer know what Japan is all about except for the Japanese technology and culture and the nouvelle cuisine they enjoy. Boycotting Japanese goods in any country is merely a matter of cutting one’s nose off to spite one’s face. And where else but in he East do we know more about “saving face”?

China’s mantra to criticisms or comments by anyone outside China is: “Don’t interfere in our internal affairs.” But it only applies to China. She is allowed to voice her opinion of other countries and governments and tell them what to do and not do and in many cases even bully neutral countries to turn against others who do not kowtow to her.

Visits by politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine have been condemned by China and its neighbours. Built in 1879 during the Meiji period, the shrine houses more than two and half million memorial tablets of revered samurai and soldiers who gave their lives to social freedom, democracy, and human rights. The sacrifices show the love for their families, their race and their nation. The Shinto religion is very complex. Shinto Kami pays a great deal of reverence to the dead and its edict does not allow tablets to be moved. According to Shinto there is not a single existence that serves no purpose and considers the work of all things spiritual.

Comfort women! Having experienced so much pain and shame in this matter, the energy vented in what happened in the past could be put to better use. Help with the current situation, prevent the kidnapping of thousands of girls the world over, especially in Africa, for the sex trade and to “comfort” the soldiers in many wars around the world.

Has China written its new history books? Think of the thousands who were “gloriously made to sacrifice” their lives to famine during the Mao era. The Cultural Revolution and culture cleansing by the Communists deprived China of philosophers, authors, poets, artists and teachers. They and their families were made to go through much degradation and suffering. They were tortured and killed. Historical sites were completely destroyed. And then there was the Tiananmen “incident.”

What are the Chinese history books saying about the horrors committed by the PLA soldiers in Tibet? They imprisoned and tortured Buddhist nuns and monks. They defaced and desecrated sacred relics and ancient tankas. They tore down monasteries. Confused peasants were locked up and tortured for displaying pictures of the Dalai Lama in their homes which were no more than shacks.

I guess we can now look forward to apologies and large compensations from China for these atrocities. It may have to be after this current cleansed generation relearns and pieces together its past and earns the tourist dollar. Get on with that “peace study” so that the future generation will never repeat the same mistake the old Japan made 60 years ago. Waste no time looking for revenge and compensation. The present is the future.

Japanese soldiers carried out inhumane acts and killed and maimed millions in their misguided faith in uniting the East against the West. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind, not even the present Japanese population. that Japan continues to make more formal apologies, give financial aid, and compensation. And why should Japan not have a place in the UN security council? She is the second largest financial contributor. It is time now, as Tokyo said, to sit down, study the joint history and come to a reasonable compromise. Both Japan and China, the two rising powers, need each other as good neighbours and trade partners and for the stability of the rest of Asia.

The Chinese character for “human being ” is composed of two strokes. “Ren” cannot exist with one stroke, it needs the other.

Tsunami Soul Search

Geologic plates pressing against each other slipped violently, created the bulge on the bottom that could be as high as 10 metres and hundreds of kilometres long. A column of water of billions of tons moved. The reaction caused waves equal in power to a million atomic bombs. Having started more than 10 km beneath the sea floor close to Sumatra, Indonesia, the waves crashed into the Indian Ocean coasts on Sunday.

It is said that this undersea earth quake, that caused the tsunami on the 26 Dec. 2004, was so powerful that it even disturbed the earth’s rotation.

Within 15 minutes of the earthquake, scientists running the tsunami warning system for the Pacific had issued a cautionary report from their Honolulu hub, to 26 participating countries. India was not among them. It would seem no one communicated with those oceans away, with those who could be directly hit. Why was the information not relayed?

The waves took four hours to reach the east coast of Africa and in all that time no mention had been made of the possibility of unusual wave occurrences and no serious warning was issued. It is amazing that no monitors and satellites picked up anything unusual about the sea surface.

Go digital! We went digital. Communication is the buzz word of the 21 century. We email, fax, we SMS. We video conference, check baby’s movements in the womb. We give electronic instructions to robots to perform surgery. From the moon we talk to earth.

In Hong Kong a weather picture via satellite picks up a man getting his bike from a grid on the banks of a canal in Amsterdam. I have been told that information on the number-plate of a car can be spotted by a satellite.

Night-vision goggles cut through darkness. We can track nuclear bombs being detonated anywhere in the world.

How tragic then is that no one saw, felt or heard to give warning. How tragic then is the fact that no one talked about the possibility of a tsunami. How tragic then is this statement: “I did not know who to contact” from a man at one of the stations set up to check ocean movements. We are told that many tracking and monitoring stations were not manned because it was a holiday.

Yes, it would have been a monumental task to warn all, it would have created panic and hysteria, it would have been unbelievable. It would have saved thousands of lives.

Where were those weather stations and tidal gauges? Were there no ships at sea? No high tech navy, no super submarines? No low flying planes? Where were the Coast Guards? And where were the fishermen with their electronic equipment?

Was no one concerned enough with the irregular wave movements and tides prior to the tsunami arriving at the various shores?

We talk of what could have been in place to monitor the Indian Ocean Region. We hear of costs and priorities. It only happens very rarely, perhaps once every two centuries. Many questions arise about the mysterious ways in which Gods work. Religious leaders have different answers. We can blame it global warming and President Bush for not wanting to sign the Kyoto protocol.

The most provocative question however is “What is this failure of communication?”

Mr. Murthy, a tsunami expert, says “the waves are totally predictable. We have travel time charts of waves that cover all the Indian Ocean. There is no reason for a single individual to get killed in a tsunami.”

No, not a single, but hundreds of thousands of singles.

One Month On

We have lost it.

A pall of mist covers this valley. Nature is in mourning on this full moon night, 25th. Jan 2005. The white crests of the shushing small waves move back and forth and disappear, hardly visible. A month ago, on another shore, a sharp, cold full moon, unnaturally bright, looked down. The deep velvet sky was clear. It was a cool night.

Everyone is still overwhelmed with the enormity of that day of survival and destruction. It brings to mind unbearable grief, remembrance of what took place 26th December 2004. What unfolded that day and since is deeply etched in all of us.

We have evolved. We are not able to sense, see or detect the danger? Our instincts are blunt now.

Why did we not know ? The animals did. Story after story has come to light of dogs, cats, and other domestic animals that saved themselves. Birds and bees escaped. In the ravaged southeast the waves washed floodwaters up to 3 km (2 miles) inland at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka’s biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild animals.

Elephants, leopards, deer, jackals, crocodiles were safe. “There is not even a dead hare or rabbit” say the authorities. “I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening,” H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department, has said.

Yes, we have lost it, we have lost our finer sense. Primitive men and women sensed danger before it came. They were in tune with earth and themselves. We have lost our acute hearing, our sharp sense of smell. Our psychic abilities have left us. Our feet are not firmly planted in the ground or perhaps we should have four feet each firmly placed on earth.

Elephants to ants knew the danger. They still possess their fine acoustic sense. They can still pick up the vibrations and infrasound, changes in the air pressure.

In Khao Lak elephants knew the tsunami was coming. The animals at the elephant parks started trumpeting when the earthquake took place near Sumatra. Dang and his wife Kulada had never heard them do this. They managed to quieten them down. But they started wailing again about an hour later and this time they could not be quietened. Some charged up the hill, others that were chained broke their hefty manacles and ran up the hill.

Those on the beach picked up children and adults with their trunks and threw them over their backs and ran away from the beach about a kilometre away and the tsunami came right up to them and stopped.

A woman who could not save her children trusted her twins to another. This woman followed the wake of an enormous snake and found land and safety for the twins and herself.

We have lost our 6th sense.

Sudan

Fiction?

I pile the fire wood neatly by the side our hut. The older children laugh playing some secret game. My three old clings to me. My husband rests in the hut. He tilled all morning. Hard work in an unyielding ground.

I stand up brushing the sweat from face. I stretch my aching back. I am with child, but only a few months gone. I squeeze a splinter in my palm. I hear a rumble, and a quiet pud-pud. I shade my eyes. I look into the distance from where the sound comes. The sound has stirred up the hot dust.

A different sweat pricks my scalp. I shout to the children: Run, run. They stop their game and look me alert like deer. I scream, “Junjaweed!” They run. The oldest holds her sister’s hand and runs one way, the boy the other. He turns back and runs to catch up with his sisters. I stand paralyzed watching them.

Soon the dust cloud arrives, camel riders and jeeps. Shooting starts. Flaming torches fly into thatch huts. The torrid air is filled with fatal screams.

I shout for my husband. My husband in sleep haze, not understanding, comes to the door. A car, covered in red dust glides towards me. The car stops. A well uniformed man steps out of the car. His hand goes to his hip. The man draws out his gun and shoots. I kneel by my husband cradling his bloodied head. The man picks up my three year old by one arm. I do not hear my plea. He walks with the wriggling child and throws him into my neighbour’s burning home.

I almost throw myself into the fire to get my son. Two men, black with white teeth, laughing, grab me. Another pulls me back by my hair and throws me on the ground. The three tear my clothes off me. They take turns to hold me and rape me. I feel waves of the hot rippling air of the fires around us.

Soon, it is all over. The invaders are gone, our village is burnt. Our men are dead. I run about searching for my other children. I turn over child corpses. Some speared, some shot, and others still burning.

Perhaps they did escape, my three children.

I find them, one by one — dead.

Fiction — no. Fact — Dafur.

Peace

Thailand

The Land of Smiles,

A country of grace and beauty.

On a bright clear Sunday, 5 Jan of 2004, a hundred million paper cranes drifted down gently from the sky, cranes of peace and harmony.

Sixty three million people, minus perhaps 5 million disgruntled Muslims, “origamied” paper cranes of all sizes. 100 million carefully folded cranes with peace messages written in them. One special crane had Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra’s signature. Children and adults scrambled for them as the finder of this crane would enjoy a scholarship. It was also King Bhumiphol Adulyadez’s 77th birthday.

But the critics called the gesture a gimmick. The Muslims of the Southern Provinces called it an un-Muslin act. The media had their choice of words for it — they called it “50 military planes bombarded the provinces with paper cranes.”

Various ethnic groups — Malays, Chinese, Laotians, Cambodians, Indonesians, and Sri Lankans — have lived here over many years overlapping each others customs and cultures. Various religions are practised — Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduim, and Taoism with a generous splash of Animism. They have all live here in relative peace with the majority Muslim population.

Now religious harmony has been disrupted, it is not to come easy in this border region of Thailand and Malaysia.

So what is the problem? Insurgents they say — Afghani Jihads, Al Qaedas, Jamiaah Islamiahs, multiple Malaysian Islamic radical groups, and, for good measure, Tamil Tigers could be the cause, some think. A quiet and peaceful juncture for the training of terrorists perhaps, quiet provinces providing a trading post for smuggling drugs and arms in and out of the country.

Bombings of police stations, drive-by shootings of politicians, and arson has resulted in the deaths of more than 500 in recent years. Violence for violence in the burning of mosques is not the answer. Violence against the police and soldiers, security, politicians and Buddhist monks has escalated. The misguided act of security officials in piling of protesters into trucks and suffocating more than 80 has incensed the situation further.

A new awareness is needed, all is not well in this southern melting pot. The concentration of five million Muslims is not getting enough attention from the central government.

Steps more concrete than paper are needed in Southern Thailand.

Death at Ramadan

End of an enigma, end of a puzzle but still a man of many lives. Having cheated death several times; surviving a plane crash, several assassination attempts by the Israeli Intelligence Agents and a serious stroke, Yasser Arafat decided to call it quits on 11 November 04. Prior to his death it was a week of much sadness and waiting for good news in the Muslim world. Even after death the fight continues. One is not allowed to die of old age any more, it’s a mystery death. The cause of death is to be investigated.

Timing became a big issue. With only days to go before the celebration Eid, Yasser Arafat’s serious illness was in the balance for Palestinians and Muslim sympathizers. The question was whether they would celebrate Eid, the end of the fasting month or would they end up mourning the loss of Yasser Arafat. They waited for good news. Should shops stop bringing in stock for the festivities and expect the celebration flurry of buying or should they expect a shut down? Would the month long fasting end in mourning instead of celebrating? But it all ended on a sad note.

Yasser Arafat had been confined to his quarters in Palestine, under house-arrest for more than two and a half years He doggedly refused to leave the country and his first trip out was one from which he was not to return alive. Even in death he is dangerous man. It was his wish to be buried in West Jerusalem. The occupying Israelis would not permit it. Earth had to be brought from the al-Asqa Mosque to line the tomb for burial. Mourners were not allowed free movement either. Thousands in parts of Gaza and the west bank had to stay put and mourn at home.

One had to admire the speed with which his body was taken from Paris to Cairo for a public mourning and then to Palestine to be buried there according to Muslim tradition. The vast wrecked grounds of Yasser Arafat’s last abode was cleared out for the tomb and for the helicopter pads that were to bring his body and the dignitaries. Space was made for the invited guests, red carpet was laid out, and flags and bunting strung out. The burial was to be attended only by invited dignitaries. But no sooner the body arrived all plans were changed by the people. Authorities had not foreseen the loyalty and determination. Barriers could not stop them. They surged through the gates and over the walls of the large compound. Hundreds climbed up the nearby trees and higher buildings. The people of Yasser Arafat grew to an unstoppable mass.

Now the big question is who will take his place. Yasser Arafat had not trained a successor.

Election has to take place within 60 days.

But how? The nation is spread out under Israeli occupation, by Israeli security and check-point controls. There is no freedom of movement in the Gaza strip and West Bank to organize an election.

Checkmate!

Time to reassemble the pieces on the chess board. Palestinians, and Israelis, and Peace-makers are to come together. Time to put in an extra piece on the board, a jail beside the castle. Mr. Bargouti who is in an Israeli prison serving five consecutive life sentences is also a candidate.