Saturday, April 14, 2012
It Says It All: Pope Wearing a Sombrero
I came across this picture of the pope on his recent visit to Mexico:
Doesn't he just look a picture in that hat?
How many young Mexican children have been traumatized for life having witnessed that?
Jesus really did weep.
Doesn't he just look a picture in that hat?
How many young Mexican children have been traumatized for life having witnessed that?
Jesus really did weep.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
RAVE: Rick to the Sanitorium!
I frankly don't give a damn about this year's Presidential election in the US, but even I chuckled when I heard this week that Rick Sanitorium...ahem, Santorum...had decided to bow out of the Republican primary race.
This was an anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, i-don't-believe-in-evolution-climate-change-is-a-myth-and-let's--just-bomb-the-hell-out-of-everyone-who-doesn't-agree-with-us, right-wing turd who was the epitome of everything that the rest of us find so downright amusing (and scary) about American politics. This Christian Evangelical's wet dream is no more, at least for the 2012 Presidential election.
Supposedly it was because his daughter is getting sicker. Yeah, right. He knew he was losing, the creepy schmuck.
It's a case of good riddance to conservative rubbish.
So now the Republicans have that smarmy, elitist prig, Mitt Romney, as their candidate. Talk about wanting to lose an election without even trying. The man will have no appeal to most independent voters and is too damn rich and smug for most, I am quite sure.
Romney is about as much a 'people's man' as George W Bush is intelligent.
And given what a twit Romney is about foreign policy, including consistently referring to Russia as if it were still the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, him losing will only be a good thing.
Obama will almost certainly walk the election in November. Unless he gets caught up in some sexual scandal - that's the only thing that really seems to upset American voters terribly, of course.
Obama will win. Better the warmongering bastard you know, than the warmongering bastard that you don't.
What a choice.
Do you get my point?
This was an anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, i-don't-believe-in-evolution-climate-change-is-a-myth-and-let's--just-bomb-the-hell-out-of-everyone-who-doesn't-agree-with-us, right-wing turd who was the epitome of everything that the rest of us find so downright amusing (and scary) about American politics. This Christian Evangelical's wet dream is no more, at least for the 2012 Presidential election.
Supposedly it was because his daughter is getting sicker. Yeah, right. He knew he was losing, the creepy schmuck.
It's a case of good riddance to conservative rubbish.
So now the Republicans have that smarmy, elitist prig, Mitt Romney, as their candidate. Talk about wanting to lose an election without even trying. The man will have no appeal to most independent voters and is too damn rich and smug for most, I am quite sure.
Romney is about as much a 'people's man' as George W Bush is intelligent.
And given what a twit Romney is about foreign policy, including consistently referring to Russia as if it were still the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, him losing will only be a good thing.
Obama will almost certainly walk the election in November. Unless he gets caught up in some sexual scandal - that's the only thing that really seems to upset American voters terribly, of course.
Obama will win. Better the warmongering bastard you know, than the warmongering bastard that you don't.
What a choice.
Do you get my point?
QUESTION: Where Is Julian?
It has gone eerily silent regarding Julian Assange. Or at least that is what I am sensing on television networks (and that includes the best of them all, Russia Today, not the rubbish likes of CNN or the BBC) and even online.
After all the sensational reporting about Julian in 2010 and 2011, it all seems to have gone very, very quiet.
It's well known that Julian lost his High Court appeal against extradition to Sweden in February of this year. But what now? Is this the proverbial calm before the storm for him?
I am worried - very worried.
I did some online searches and came across a website, www.justice4assange.com - what I read there did little to comfort me. Consider:
The (abusive, corrupt) powers-that-be are a-plotting. That much must be assumed.
I care about a man who is one of the last outspoken and visible bulwarks against encroaching fascist censorship in the West. He is guilty of nothing more than exposing and embarrassing corrupt powers, who now gun for him on the masquerade of the 'War on Terror' and 'state secrets.'
And they will use 'the law' to get at him.
The (relative) silence is deafening.
Do you get my point?
After all the sensational reporting about Julian in 2010 and 2011, it all seems to have gone very, very quiet.It's well known that Julian lost his High Court appeal against extradition to Sweden in February of this year. But what now? Is this the proverbial calm before the storm for him?
I am worried - very worried.
I did some online searches and came across a website, www.justice4assange.com - what I read there did little to comfort me. Consider:
- What of the alleged "sealed indictment" against Assange as issued by a Grand Jury in Alexandria, Virginia, as according to justice4assange.com?
- What of the strong evidence that this sealed indictment has already been issued to the UK and Sweden, both known lapdogs of the United States?
- What of the statement made by the Australian Embassy (and Australia should be ashamed of itself for not standing by one of its own citizens, by the way) that, "The US investigation against WikiLeaks is unprecedented both in its scale and nature."...?
- What of the following from the said website, "Most of the attention regarding Julian Assange’s possible extradition to the US has focused on the EU agreements that are meant to prevent onward extradition - namely that the UK Home Office would have to consent to his onward extradition...[but there are other, very important potential legal lacunas and abuses to consider too]..."...?
- What of this too: "Sweden has in the recent past violated international treaties in relation to surrendering foreign nationals into US custody to be interrogated and tortured (case of extraordinary rendition, Agiza v. Sweden at the European Court of Human Rights). Furthermore, Amnesty International and the UN Committee against Torture criticised Sweden because it rendered two refugees to the CIA who were then tortured under the Egyptian regime of Hosni Mubarak." [italics for emphasis]
The (abusive, corrupt) powers-that-be are a-plotting. That much must be assumed.
I care about a man who is one of the last outspoken and visible bulwarks against encroaching fascist censorship in the West. He is guilty of nothing more than exposing and embarrassing corrupt powers, who now gun for him on the masquerade of the 'War on Terror' and 'state secrets.'
And they will use 'the law' to get at him.
The (relative) silence is deafening.
Do you get my point?
It Says It All - Boycott the Bahrain GP
My last post was on how Formula 1 should boycott the upcoming Bahrain F1 Grand Prix. Hundreds of thousands of people protested in an anti-government march on March 9th, the largest of its kind ever in the small, rich Gulf island state.
The oil-drenched, corporatist and hopelessly biased Western media may be conveniently looking the other way, but the current situation in Bahrain is explosive and the Bahraini regime is clearly struggling to crack down on the immense political unrest in the country.
Not exactly what one would expect from such a rich and 'prosperous' nation, is it now?
One thing is very clear: the Formula One GP is a hot potato issue in Bahrain, and highly unpopular amongst many protesters, so linked is it to the much-hated King Hamad. That's why the picture below of graffiti in the town of Barbar, and as cited by Washngton D.C. paper, The Examiner, is so salient:
Need one say more?
The oil-drenched, corporatist and hopelessly biased Western media may be conveniently looking the other way, but the current situation in Bahrain is explosive and the Bahraini regime is clearly struggling to crack down on the immense political unrest in the country.
Not exactly what one would expect from such a rich and 'prosperous' nation, is it now?
One thing is very clear: the Formula One GP is a hot potato issue in Bahrain, and highly unpopular amongst many protesters, so linked is it to the much-hated King Hamad. That's why the picture below of graffiti in the town of Barbar, and as cited by Washngton D.C. paper, The Examiner, is so salient:
Need one say more?
RANT: Boycott Bahrain, Bernie
I have been a Formula 1 fan for over 30 years now. I wouldn't say I'm rabid about the sport, as I sure as hell don't know every conceivable statistic about F1, like, say, baseball fans seem to have about their sport - at least in Hollywood films. Some seasons are dull, some seasons a lot more exciting. The same goes for races too.
But I do love F1 - the speed, the characters, the drama, the colour - and for anyone who has ever attended an actual Grand Prix weekend, as I have, the sheer noise, energy and spectacle of it all defies words. It's amazing.
Watching an F1 race has been a Sunday ritual for me for many years now, and sporting rituals have a funny way of making one's life more interesting, more fun, sometimes even more bearable.
However, there does come a time when sport must take a backseat to principles and politics and, yes, doing the right thing. In less than two weeks, on Sunday, April 22nd, the F1 circus will be hosted by Bahrain. Owing to political unrest and violence the 2011 race at that island state kingdom was cancelled. That was the correct thing to do, and I was glad for that. It was a big blow for the Bahraini powers-that-be - F1 is a huge prestige and glamour showcase for the small nation, even if the race itself is poorly attended and many F1 fans hate the track anyway.
As the Bahraini dictatorship (which is exactly what it is, by the way) continues to this very day to imprison doctors (for simply helping out in the mayhem of demonstrations last year) and to harass its citizens who clamour for more democracy, then it only makes sense that Formula 1 take a stand and simply not attend.
Yes, there are also F1 races in dictatorships and dubious nations like China and the UAE. But for a nation of just over a million, the F1 GP is intrinsically linked to the Bahraini regime.
Enter Bernie Ecclestone. The self-styled Formula 1 'supremo' has a near-stranglehold on the commercial rights to the sport, and is also one of the richest men in the UK. Everyone knows that Bernie loves (really L-O-V-E-S) money, and has an uncanny ability to ferret it out, like a prize specially trained pig that sniffs out truffles in an Tuscan forest. The man has amassed a huge fortune by making sure that only the highest bidder gets to host a race - which is why countries with terrific tracks like France, Austria and Portugal don't host Grand Prix, yet countries with piss-all racing traditions like Bahrain, Singapore and Abu Dhabi do. Bernie may love Formula 1, but Bernie loves money and influence a whole lot more.
But there comes a time when that cannot be enough. Even for Bernie. Of course, he continues to trumpet that old chestnut of "you shouldn't mix sports with politics", but even he must surely know that is ringing very hollow. Knowing him, he probably doesn't give a damn. A deal is a deal, and Bernie wants future deals with rich, dictatorial Arabs.
Today on the popular blog www.planet-f1.com, the headline reads, "Bosses urge FIA [the international federation for motorsport] to call off Bahrain." They're not even bothering to urge Bernie himself, probably knowing far better than I what a lost cause that is.
Ironically, I did benefit from attending Grand Prix at the splendid Kyalami track near Johannesburg at the height of apartheid. South Africa was barred from the Olympics at that time, there was an arms embargo against the country, and we were the international pariah in just about everything. But we could count on F1 races well into the 1980s. Even then it's clear that F1 had very little conscience.
Last year the F1 fraternity did have a conscience, even if it was mostly on 'security' grounds. It was hardly making a moral stand, but at least the Bahrain GP didn't go ahead. I'd settle for the same again this year.
Of one I thing know - even if the Bahrain GP does go ahead this year, I for one will be boycotting it and will not be amongst the millions tuning in that weekend. I may love Formula 1, but not that much.
Do you get my point?
Sunday, April 1, 2012
RANT: What of Your Vetoes, America?
Today I happened to come across an excellent link to the blog, www.truthaholics.blogspot.com, and an article that they posted as a response to the American "outrage" against Russia and China's veto of sanctions against Syria in the UN back in early February. The United States openly called the veto by Russia and China as "shameful", "deplorable" and even "disgusting."
Doth the United States protest too much (as usual)? One knows so, and as ripped apart by the said post from truthaholics. Below is a complete paste of the entire simply brilliant post on the riposte from truthaholics, with full courtesy thereto:
"A Quick Listing of The United States’ Record of Veto Use at the United Nations (UN): 1972–2011*
Year ~ Resolution Vetoed by the United States
1972 Condemns Israel for killing hundreds of people in Syria and Lebanon in air raids.
1973 Affirms the rights of the Palestinians and calls on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
1976 Condemns Israel for attacking Lebanese civilians.
1976 Condemns Israel for building settlements in the occupied territories.
1976 Calls for self determination for the Palestinians.
1976 Affirms the rights of the Palestinians.
1978 Urges the permanent members (USA, USSR, UK, France, China) to insure UN decisions on the maintenance of international peace and security.
1978 Criticises the living conditions of the Palestinians.
1978 Condemns the Israeli human rights record in occupied territories.
1978 Calls for developed countries to increase the quantity and quality of development assistance to underdeveloped countries.
1979 Calls for an end to all military and nuclear collaboration with the apartheid South Africa.
1979 Strengthens the arms embargo against South Africa.
1979 Offers assistance to all the oppressed people of South Africa and their liberation movement.
1979 Concerns negotiations on disarmament and cessation of the nuclear arms race.
1979 Calls for the return of all inhabitants expelled by Israel.
1979 Demands that Israel desist from human rights violations.
1979 Requests a report on the living conditions of Palestinians in occupied Arab countries.
1979 Offers assistance to the Palestinian people.
1979 Discusses sovereignty over national resources in occupied Arab territories.
1979 Calls for protection of developing counties’ exports.
1979 Calls for alternative approaches within the United Nations system for improving the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
1979 Opposes support for intervention in the internal or external affairs of states.
1979 For a UN Conference on Women.
1979 To include Palestinian women in the UN Conference on Women.
1979 Safeguards rights of developing countries in multinational trade negotiations.
1980 Requests Israel to return displaced persons.
1980 Condemns Israeli policy regarding the living conditions of the Palestinian people.
1980 Condemns Israeli human rights practices in occupied territories: 3 resolutions.
1980 Affirms the right of self determination for the Palestinians.
1980 Offers assistance to the oppressed people of South Africa and their national liberation movement.
1980 Attempts to establish a New International Economic Order to promote the growth of underdeveloped countries and international economic co-operation.
1980 Endorses the Program of Action for Second Half of UN Decade for Women.
1980 Declaration of non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states.
1980 Emphasises that the development of nations and individuals is a human right.
1980 Calls for the cessation of all nuclear test explosions.
1980 Calls for the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
1981 Promotes co-operative movements in developing countries.
1981 Affirms the right of every state to choose its economic and social system in accord with the will of its people, without outside interference in whatever form it takes.
1981 Condemns activities of foreign economic interests in colonial territories.
1981 Calls for the cessation of all test explosions of nuclear weapons.
1981 Calls for action in support of measures to prevent nuclear war, curb the arms race and promote disarmament.
1981 Urges negotiations on prohibition of chemical and biological weapons.
1981 Declares that education, work, health care, proper nourishment, national development, etc are human rights.
1981 Condemns South Africa for attacks on neighbouring states, condemns apartheid and attempts to strengthen sanctions: 7 resolutions.
1981 Condemns an attempted coup by South Africa on the Seychelles.
1981 Condemns Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, human rights policies, and the bombing of Iraq:
18 resolutions.
1982 Condemns the Israeli invasion of Lebanon:
6 resolutions (1982 to 1983).
1982 Condemns the shooting of 11 Muslims at a shrine in Jerusalem by an Israeli soldier.
1982 Calls on Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights occupied in 1967.
1982 Condemns apartheid and calls for the cessation of economic aid to South Africa: 4 resolutions.
1982 Calls for the setting up of a World Charter for the protection of the ecology.
1982 Sets up a United Nations conference on succession of states in respect to state property, archives, and debts.
1982 Nuclear test bans and negotiations and nuclear free outer space: 3 resolutions.
1982 Supports a new world information and communications order.
1982 Prohibition of chemical and bacteriological weapons.
1982 Development of international law.
1982 Protects against products harmful to health and the environment .
1982 Declares that education, work, health care, proper nourishment, and national development are human rights.
1982 Protects against products harmful to health and the environment.
1982 Development of the energy resources of developing countries.
1983 Resolutions about apartheid, nuclear arms, economics, and international law: 15 resolutions.
1984 Condemns support of South Africa in its Namibian and other policies.
1984 International action to eliminate apartheid.
1984 Condemns Israel for occupying and attacking southern Lebanon.
1984 Resolutions about apartheid, nuclear arms, economics, and international law. 18 resolutions.
1985 Condemns Israel for occupying and attacking southern Lebanon.
1985 Condemns Israel for using excessive force in the occupied territories.
1985 Resolutions about cooperation, human rights, trade and development. 3 resolutions.
1985 Measures to be taken against Nazi, Fascist, and neo-Fascist activities .
1986 Calls on all governments (including the United States) to observe international law.
1986 Imposes economic and military sanctions against South Africa.
1986 Condemns Israel for its actions against Lebanese civilians.
1986 Calls on Israel to respect Muslim holy places.
1986 Condemns Israel for sky-jacking a Libyan airliner.
1986 Resolutions about cooperation, security, human rights, trade, media bias, the environment, and development: 8 resolutions.
1987 Calls on Israel to abide by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of the Palestinians.
1987 Calls on Israel to stop deporting Palestinians.
1987 Condemns Israel for its actions in Lebanon:
2 resolutions.
1987 Calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
1987 Cooperation between the UN and League of Arab States.
1987 Calls for compliance in the International Court of Justice concerning military and paramilitary activities against Nicaragua and a call to end the trade embargo against Nicaragua: 2 resolutions.
1987 Measures to prevent international terrorism, study the underlying political and economic causes of terrorism, convene a conference to define terrorism and to differentiate it from the struggle of people from national liberation.
1987 Resolutions concerning journalism, international debt, and trade: 3 resolutions.
1987 Opposition to the build up of weapons in space.
1987 Opposition to the development of new weapons of mass destruction.
1987 Opposition to nuclear testing. 2 resolutions.
1987 Proposal to set up South Atlantic “Zone of Peace”.
1988 Condemns Israeli practices against Palestinians in the occupied territories: 5 resolutions (1988 and 1989).
1989 Condemns US invasion of Panama.
1989 Condemns US troops for ransacking the residence of the Nicaraguan ambassador in Panama.
1989 Condemns US support for the Contra army in Nicaragua.
1989 Condemns illegal US embargo of Nicaragua.
1989 Opposing the acquisition of territory by force.
1989 Calling for a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict based on earlier UN resolutions.
1990 To send three UN Security Council observers to the occupied territories.
1995 Affirms that land in East Jerusalem annexed by Israel is occupied territory.
1997 Calls on Israel to cease building settlements in East Jerusalem and other occupied territories:
2 resolutions.
1999 Calls on the United States to end its trade embargo on Cuba:
8 resolutions (1992 to 1999).
2001 To send unarmed monitors to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
2001 To set up the International Criminal Court.
2002 To renew the peace keeping mission in Bosnia.
[Chart above from http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/geoff/UNresolutions.htm]
[Chart below from: http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa03.html]
2002 Condemns the killing of a UN worker from the United Kingdom by
Israeli forces. Condemns the destruction of the World Food Programme
warehouse.
2003 Condemns a decision by the Israeli parliament to “remove” the
elected Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat.
2003 Condemns the building of a wall by Israel on Palestinian land.
2003 To end the US’s forty-year embargo of Cuba.
2004 Condemns the assassination of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmad Yassin.
2004 Condemns the Israeli incursion and killings in Gaza.
2004 Production and processing of weapon-usable material should be
under international control.
2006 Calls for an end to Israeli military incursions and attacks on Gaza.
2006 Calls for an end to the financial embargo against Cuba.
2007 Calls for peaceful uses for outer space.
2007 Calls for a convention against female discrimination.
2007 Concerning the rights of children.
2007 Concerning the right to food.
2007 On the applicability of the Geneva Convention to the protection
of civilians in time of war.
2007 Calls for the protection of the Global Climate.
2007 Calls for Indian Ocean to be declared a zone of peace. Calls for
a nuclear weapon-free South East Asia.
2007 Calls for the right of self determination for the Palestinian
people. Other resolutions regarding the Palestinians and their rights.
2008 Calls for progress towards an arms trade treaty.
2008 Banning the development of new weapons of mass destruction.
2008 Assuring non-nuclear states they will not be attacked or
threatened with nuclear weapons.
2008 Prevention of the development of an arms race in outer space and
transparency in outer space activities.
2008 Calls to decrease the operational readiness of nuclear weapons
systems and to ban nuclear weapons.
2008 Calls to end the use of depleted Uranium in weapons.
2008 Concerning the trade in illicit small arms.
2008 Calls for a nuclear free Central Asia and a nuclear free Southern
Hemisphere. Prevention of proliferation in the Middle East.
2008 Calls for a comprehensive (nuclear) test ban treaty. Calls for a
nuclear weapon free world.
2008 Calls for a treaty on children’s rights.
2008 Condemns racial discrimination.
2008 Affirms the sovereignty of Palestinians over the occupied
territories and their resources.
2008 Affirms the right of the Palestinians to self determination.
2008 Calls on Israel to pay the cost of cleaning up an oil slick off
the coast of Lebanon caused by its bombing.
2008 Calls for a new economic order.
2008 Calls for a right of development for nations.
2008 Calls for a right to food.
2008 Respect for the right to universal freedom of travel and the
vital importance of family reunification.
2008 Concerning developments in information technology for international security.
2008 Resolutions concerning Palestine, its people, their property, and
Israeli practices in Palestine, including settlements.
2009 Calls for an end to the twenty-two-day-long Israeli attack on Gaza.
2011 Calls for a halt to the illegal Israeli West Bank settlements.
2011 Calls for Israel to cease obstructing the movement and access of
the staff, vehicles and supplies of the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
2011 Calls for the immediate and complete cessation of all Israeli
settlement activities in all of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.
* This list will be revised and better documented shortly. Reading Sunday news necessitated quick referencing. Glitches that may be found above at this point do not diminish the larger claim."
I will no doubt come back to this list again and again from now on, thanks to this post by the truthaholics blog.
Need one say more?
Doth the United States protest too much (as usual)? One knows so, and as ripped apart by the said post from truthaholics. Below is a complete paste of the entire simply brilliant post on the riposte from truthaholics, with full courtesy thereto:
"A Quick Listing of The United States’ Record of Veto Use at the United Nations (UN): 1972–2011*
Year ~ Resolution Vetoed by the United States
1972 Condemns Israel for killing hundreds of people in Syria and Lebanon in air raids.
1973 Affirms the rights of the Palestinians and calls on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
1976 Condemns Israel for attacking Lebanese civilians.
1976 Condemns Israel for building settlements in the occupied territories.
1976 Calls for self determination for the Palestinians.
1976 Affirms the rights of the Palestinians.
1978 Urges the permanent members (USA, USSR, UK, France, China) to insure UN decisions on the maintenance of international peace and security.
1978 Criticises the living conditions of the Palestinians.
1978 Condemns the Israeli human rights record in occupied territories.
1978 Calls for developed countries to increase the quantity and quality of development assistance to underdeveloped countries.
1979 Calls for an end to all military and nuclear collaboration with the apartheid South Africa.
1979 Strengthens the arms embargo against South Africa.
1979 Offers assistance to all the oppressed people of South Africa and their liberation movement.
1979 Concerns negotiations on disarmament and cessation of the nuclear arms race.
1979 Calls for the return of all inhabitants expelled by Israel.
1979 Demands that Israel desist from human rights violations.
1979 Requests a report on the living conditions of Palestinians in occupied Arab countries.
1979 Offers assistance to the Palestinian people.
1979 Discusses sovereignty over national resources in occupied Arab territories.
1979 Calls for protection of developing counties’ exports.
1979 Calls for alternative approaches within the United Nations system for improving the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
1979 Opposes support for intervention in the internal or external affairs of states.
1979 For a UN Conference on Women.
1979 To include Palestinian women in the UN Conference on Women.
1979 Safeguards rights of developing countries in multinational trade negotiations.
1980 Requests Israel to return displaced persons.
1980 Condemns Israeli policy regarding the living conditions of the Palestinian people.
1980 Condemns Israeli human rights practices in occupied territories: 3 resolutions.
1980 Affirms the right of self determination for the Palestinians.
1980 Offers assistance to the oppressed people of South Africa and their national liberation movement.
1980 Attempts to establish a New International Economic Order to promote the growth of underdeveloped countries and international economic co-operation.
1980 Endorses the Program of Action for Second Half of UN Decade for Women.
1980 Declaration of non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states.
1980 Emphasises that the development of nations and individuals is a human right.
1980 Calls for the cessation of all nuclear test explosions.
1980 Calls for the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
1981 Promotes co-operative movements in developing countries.
1981 Affirms the right of every state to choose its economic and social system in accord with the will of its people, without outside interference in whatever form it takes.
1981 Condemns activities of foreign economic interests in colonial territories.
1981 Calls for the cessation of all test explosions of nuclear weapons.
1981 Calls for action in support of measures to prevent nuclear war, curb the arms race and promote disarmament.
1981 Urges negotiations on prohibition of chemical and biological weapons.
1981 Declares that education, work, health care, proper nourishment, national development, etc are human rights.
1981 Condemns South Africa for attacks on neighbouring states, condemns apartheid and attempts to strengthen sanctions: 7 resolutions.
1981 Condemns an attempted coup by South Africa on the Seychelles.
1981 Condemns Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, human rights policies, and the bombing of Iraq:
18 resolutions.
1982 Condemns the Israeli invasion of Lebanon:
6 resolutions (1982 to 1983).
1982 Condemns the shooting of 11 Muslims at a shrine in Jerusalem by an Israeli soldier.
1982 Calls on Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights occupied in 1967.
1982 Condemns apartheid and calls for the cessation of economic aid to South Africa: 4 resolutions.
1982 Calls for the setting up of a World Charter for the protection of the ecology.
1982 Sets up a United Nations conference on succession of states in respect to state property, archives, and debts.
1982 Nuclear test bans and negotiations and nuclear free outer space: 3 resolutions.
1982 Supports a new world information and communications order.
1982 Prohibition of chemical and bacteriological weapons.
1982 Development of international law.
1982 Protects against products harmful to health and the environment .
1982 Declares that education, work, health care, proper nourishment, and national development are human rights.
1982 Protects against products harmful to health and the environment.
1982 Development of the energy resources of developing countries.
1983 Resolutions about apartheid, nuclear arms, economics, and international law: 15 resolutions.
1984 Condemns support of South Africa in its Namibian and other policies.
1984 International action to eliminate apartheid.
1984 Condemns Israel for occupying and attacking southern Lebanon.
1984 Resolutions about apartheid, nuclear arms, economics, and international law. 18 resolutions.
1985 Condemns Israel for occupying and attacking southern Lebanon.
1985 Condemns Israel for using excessive force in the occupied territories.
1985 Resolutions about cooperation, human rights, trade and development. 3 resolutions.
1985 Measures to be taken against Nazi, Fascist, and neo-Fascist activities .
1986 Calls on all governments (including the United States) to observe international law.
1986 Imposes economic and military sanctions against South Africa.
1986 Condemns Israel for its actions against Lebanese civilians.
1986 Calls on Israel to respect Muslim holy places.
1986 Condemns Israel for sky-jacking a Libyan airliner.
1986 Resolutions about cooperation, security, human rights, trade, media bias, the environment, and development: 8 resolutions.
1987 Calls on Israel to abide by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of the Palestinians.
1987 Calls on Israel to stop deporting Palestinians.
1987 Condemns Israel for its actions in Lebanon:
2 resolutions.
1987 Calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
1987 Cooperation between the UN and League of Arab States.
1987 Calls for compliance in the International Court of Justice concerning military and paramilitary activities against Nicaragua and a call to end the trade embargo against Nicaragua: 2 resolutions.
1987 Measures to prevent international terrorism, study the underlying political and economic causes of terrorism, convene a conference to define terrorism and to differentiate it from the struggle of people from national liberation.
1987 Resolutions concerning journalism, international debt, and trade: 3 resolutions.
1987 Opposition to the build up of weapons in space.
1987 Opposition to the development of new weapons of mass destruction.
1987 Opposition to nuclear testing. 2 resolutions.
1987 Proposal to set up South Atlantic “Zone of Peace”.
1988 Condemns Israeli practices against Palestinians in the occupied territories: 5 resolutions (1988 and 1989).
1989 Condemns US invasion of Panama.
1989 Condemns US troops for ransacking the residence of the Nicaraguan ambassador in Panama.
1989 Condemns US support for the Contra army in Nicaragua.
1989 Condemns illegal US embargo of Nicaragua.
1989 Opposing the acquisition of territory by force.
1989 Calling for a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict based on earlier UN resolutions.
1990 To send three UN Security Council observers to the occupied territories.
1995 Affirms that land in East Jerusalem annexed by Israel is occupied territory.
1997 Calls on Israel to cease building settlements in East Jerusalem and other occupied territories:
2 resolutions.
1999 Calls on the United States to end its trade embargo on Cuba:
8 resolutions (1992 to 1999).
2001 To send unarmed monitors to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
2001 To set up the International Criminal Court.
2002 To renew the peace keeping mission in Bosnia.
[Chart above from http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/geoff/UNresolutions.htm]
[Chart below from: http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa03.html]
2002 Condemns the killing of a UN worker from the United Kingdom by
Israeli forces. Condemns the destruction of the World Food Programme
warehouse.
2003 Condemns a decision by the Israeli parliament to “remove” the
elected Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat.
2003 Condemns the building of a wall by Israel on Palestinian land.
2003 To end the US’s forty-year embargo of Cuba.
2004 Condemns the assassination of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmad Yassin.
2004 Condemns the Israeli incursion and killings in Gaza.
2004 Production and processing of weapon-usable material should be
under international control.
2006 Calls for an end to Israeli military incursions and attacks on Gaza.
2006 Calls for an end to the financial embargo against Cuba.
2007 Calls for peaceful uses for outer space.
2007 Calls for a convention against female discrimination.
2007 Concerning the rights of children.
2007 Concerning the right to food.
2007 On the applicability of the Geneva Convention to the protection
of civilians in time of war.
2007 Calls for the protection of the Global Climate.
2007 Calls for Indian Ocean to be declared a zone of peace. Calls for
a nuclear weapon-free South East Asia.
2007 Calls for the right of self determination for the Palestinian
people. Other resolutions regarding the Palestinians and their rights.
2008 Calls for progress towards an arms trade treaty.
2008 Banning the development of new weapons of mass destruction.
2008 Assuring non-nuclear states they will not be attacked or
threatened with nuclear weapons.
2008 Prevention of the development of an arms race in outer space and
transparency in outer space activities.
2008 Calls to decrease the operational readiness of nuclear weapons
systems and to ban nuclear weapons.
2008 Calls to end the use of depleted Uranium in weapons.
2008 Concerning the trade in illicit small arms.
2008 Calls for a nuclear free Central Asia and a nuclear free Southern
Hemisphere. Prevention of proliferation in the Middle East.
2008 Calls for a comprehensive (nuclear) test ban treaty. Calls for a
nuclear weapon free world.
2008 Calls for a treaty on children’s rights.
2008 Condemns racial discrimination.
2008 Affirms the sovereignty of Palestinians over the occupied
territories and their resources.
2008 Affirms the right of the Palestinians to self determination.
2008 Calls on Israel to pay the cost of cleaning up an oil slick off
the coast of Lebanon caused by its bombing.
2008 Calls for a new economic order.
2008 Calls for a right of development for nations.
2008 Calls for a right to food.
2008 Respect for the right to universal freedom of travel and the
vital importance of family reunification.
2008 Concerning developments in information technology for international security.
2008 Resolutions concerning Palestine, its people, their property, and
Israeli practices in Palestine, including settlements.
2009 Calls for an end to the twenty-two-day-long Israeli attack on Gaza.
2011 Calls for a halt to the illegal Israeli West Bank settlements.
2011 Calls for Israel to cease obstructing the movement and access of
the staff, vehicles and supplies of the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
2011 Calls for the immediate and complete cessation of all Israeli
settlement activities in all of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.
* This list will be revised and better documented shortly. Reading Sunday news necessitated quick referencing. Glitches that may be found above at this point do not diminish the larger claim."
I will no doubt come back to this list again and again from now on, thanks to this post by the truthaholics blog.
Need one say more?
It Says It All: Israeli Hegemony
I saw this brilliant cartoon today in an excellent article about the hypocrisy of the United States and the West on the website, www.veteranstoday.com:
Need one say more?
Need one say more?
It Says It All: The Syrian 'Crisis' & Other 'Fights for Democracy'
I came across this brilliant and extremely telling today. It was from a blog called www.democratic-syria.blogspot.com, and for all its possible pro-Assad or anti-West bias (and on even that I cannot make real call, nor should it matter), the points it makes about the sheer hypocrisy of some of the West and Arab world's vitriol against Assad cannot be wished away. Let me see the validity of some this blog's claims:
- "The West has always been and will always be hypocrites when it comes to slogans and what they really aim to do. Issues like Human Rights, Freedom of Speech, Democracy, Protecting Civilians... Are all great slogans for ugly acts, how many lives were lost under these slogans in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Lebanon, Serbia, Bosnia, Vietnam... and the list goes on." - Valid
- "We've seen how Greek officials handle their own peoples' aspiration to rid of the control of bankers of their lives and the result was appointing a banker to rule them." - Valid
- "We've seen Italians and how their government in a copy cat of Greek's handled them." - Valid
- "We've seen the remarkably peaceful and overwhelming Occupy Wall Street movement and how brutally it was handled by 'law enforcement' thugs in the USA." - Valid
Yes, democracy will indeed come to you, replete with bombs and atrocities and dead civilians and destroyed cities and towns and raped economies and puppet governments... whether you like it or not.
Do you get my point?
RANT: The So-Called "Friends of Syria"
Few things in this world make me as angry as hypocrisy. Yet it is everywhere. The historical record is rife with hypocrisy; human nature is rife with hypocrisy. The hypocrisy of the powerful, the hypocrisy of the pleb - it has been a mainstay of human society and has shaped who we are, regardless of race, culture or creed. Hypocrisy has no doubt abounded for millennia, it would seem, and certainly continues to abound with wild abandon today.
The Syrian 'crisis' is an excellent case in point.
First and foremost, this is an internal 'crisis', yet it has been mangled by certain Western and Arab powers to be a crisis that somehow 'affects us all'. But it doesn't, not should it. If the Assad regime is under attack from internal forces, then so be it. But it is an internal matter, whatever the 'civilized world' might wish to harp on about. Civil wars and internal revolutions have occurred many times before, and shall continue to occur long into the future.
The hypocrisy of it all is the we all know this is nothing more than a geopolitical battle being waged with one goal in mind - Iran. Syria is strategic conduit to that nation that poses so many 'threats' to so many 'powers' (when in fact, it doesn't). Iran is a threat to the United States and the West because it simply won't capitulate to ludicrous and patently unfair allegations about its nuclear program. Iran is a threat to Israel because the apartheid Jewish state is the hysterical bitch that never shuts the hell up and shit stirs like the most vile gossip on the block.
Iran wants to develop nuclear energy. I am entirely opposed to nuclear energy on ecological and human health grounds, but when nuclear countries like the United States, the UK, France and Israel get all shrill and self-righteous about Iran's 'nuclear intentions', then all I want to do is throw up - such is my bile from the sheer hypocrisy of these anti-Tehran allegations.
However, all the hypocrisy gets even richer when just this weekend a symposium of countries calling themselves 'Friend of Syria" meet in Istanbul to declare their unrelenting devotion (and plenty bucks and arms) to the so-called 'freedom fighters' in Syria trying to topple the Assad regime.
Never mind that these so-called 'freedom fighters in Syria have been:
Hillary Clinton, that sold-out and inept Secretary of State from the United States, is there too, grinning like a demented old mog and looking more bedraggled than ever. So too other nations committed to overthrowing Assad, all in the name of the "people of Syria" and that most whored-out word of all, "democracy."
I say hypocrisy because one of the leading bulwarks in this Laughable Posse of Hypocrites congregated in Istanbul is none other than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, undoubtedly one of the most oppressive and outright hideous governments on planet Earth. And there they are berating Syria's Assad for being an "oppressor" and violating "human rights," full of indignant self-righteousness.
This 'indignation' from SAUDI ARABIA?!!
Oh, come on! How can anyone not see the sheer hypocrisy of just that?!
We all know what this is all about: it's about nothing more than oil and geopolitical power by a seriously ailing and declining (and bankrupt, by the way) imperial power and its lapdog allies in the region, as well as from the West. Oil and money-obsessed geopolitics. Nothing else. Hence all the streams and rivers and enormous oceans of putrid, nauseating hypocrisy.
This has stuff all to do with democracy or violations of human rights. This is cynical, malevolent geopolitical posturing at its very worst. And we as human beings should be sick to the stomach that this is what we have progressed to in the year 2012.
Do you get my point?
The Syrian 'crisis' is an excellent case in point.
First and foremost, this is an internal 'crisis', yet it has been mangled by certain Western and Arab powers to be a crisis that somehow 'affects us all'. But it doesn't, not should it. If the Assad regime is under attack from internal forces, then so be it. But it is an internal matter, whatever the 'civilized world' might wish to harp on about. Civil wars and internal revolutions have occurred many times before, and shall continue to occur long into the future.
The hypocrisy of it all is the we all know this is nothing more than a geopolitical battle being waged with one goal in mind - Iran. Syria is strategic conduit to that nation that poses so many 'threats' to so many 'powers' (when in fact, it doesn't). Iran is a threat to the United States and the West because it simply won't capitulate to ludicrous and patently unfair allegations about its nuclear program. Iran is a threat to Israel because the apartheid Jewish state is the hysterical bitch that never shuts the hell up and shit stirs like the most vile gossip on the block.
Iran wants to develop nuclear energy. I am entirely opposed to nuclear energy on ecological and human health grounds, but when nuclear countries like the United States, the UK, France and Israel get all shrill and self-righteous about Iran's 'nuclear intentions', then all I want to do is throw up - such is my bile from the sheer hypocrisy of these anti-Tehran allegations.
However, all the hypocrisy gets even richer when just this weekend a symposium of countries calling themselves 'Friend of Syria" meet in Istanbul to declare their unrelenting devotion (and plenty bucks and arms) to the so-called 'freedom fighters' in Syria trying to topple the Assad regime.
Never mind that these so-called 'freedom fighters in Syria have been:
- Accused by many Syrian witnesses of mostly being comprised of foreign mercenaries
- Accused by many Syrian and foreign aid people inside the country of countless horrific atrocities against civilians in cities like Homs
- Accused by the International Red Cross of being a leading cause of the thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries like Turkey and Jordan
- Aided, abetted and very strongly supported by certain Western and Arab countries with arms, cash and, of course, diplomatic support
Hillary Clinton, that sold-out and inept Secretary of State from the United States, is there too, grinning like a demented old mog and looking more bedraggled than ever. So too other nations committed to overthrowing Assad, all in the name of the "people of Syria" and that most whored-out word of all, "democracy." I say hypocrisy because one of the leading bulwarks in this Laughable Posse of Hypocrites congregated in Istanbul is none other than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, undoubtedly one of the most oppressive and outright hideous governments on planet Earth. And there they are berating Syria's Assad for being an "oppressor" and violating "human rights," full of indignant self-righteousness.
This 'indignation' from SAUDI ARABIA?!!
Oh, come on! How can anyone not see the sheer hypocrisy of just that?!
We all know what this is all about: it's about nothing more than oil and geopolitical power by a seriously ailing and declining (and bankrupt, by the way) imperial power and its lapdog allies in the region, as well as from the West. Oil and money-obsessed geopolitics. Nothing else. Hence all the streams and rivers and enormous oceans of putrid, nauseating hypocrisy.
This has stuff all to do with democracy or violations of human rights. This is cynical, malevolent geopolitical posturing at its very worst. And we as human beings should be sick to the stomach that this is what we have progressed to in the year 2012.
Do you get my point?
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