Thoughts on the Middle East

BBC NEWS - Iraqi father seeks Blackwater apology

This broke my heart.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraqi father seeks Blackwater apology

Mr Abdul-Razzaq had been driving home with his sister, her three children and Ali. He said that "everything was quiet, nothing was happening" when the security guards began to open fire on civilian vehicles, including his own.

"They just kept shooting, although no-one was moving, they were just combing the whole road, tat tat tat, like that, there was nothing in the road."

He said that he and his sister huddled together, each trying to protect the other, while the four children tried to find protection under cushions in the back of the car.

He said the shooting lasted "10, perhaps 15 minutes" and that when he climbed out of the bullet-ridden car, shaken but unharmed, one of his nephews called out to him from the back seat: "Uncle, Ali's dead."

Sobbing, he described opening the car door to a scene of horror. His son had been shot in the head. "I pushed him back inside and I began to shout down the road, 'They've killed my son, they've killed my son'."

This is horrible. Children are not terrorists. We need to end this war so they can go to school and play with their friends without the fear of being struck by the crossfire of
misguided war that has only served to increase hate and intolerance in the Middle East.

HRC: Enough Already!

I am so over Hillary Clinton. Seriously. SO over her. Why? Just a few reasons:

1. Her promise to "totally obliterate" Iran in the case of an airstrike against Israel. Just what we need - more belligerent rhetoric about our policy in the Middle East! The unfoundedness of this statement is well-explained here in The New York Observer.

2. The undeserved claim that she represents "progress" for women in politics. Feminist progress in politics, to me, means the election of female politicians who promote values traditionally deemed "feminine." These values include compassion, understanding, greater attention to social welfare, and the use of comprehensive diplomacy in lieu of military force. That's not to say the are inherently feminine values, but the hyper-masculine political culture that has prevailed for centuries has labeled them as such to emasculate men less inclined towards war-mongering and oligarchical American values. More on this over at The Phoenix.

3. The incredible poorly-chosen and racially-fueled remarks she made Wednesday, in which she essentially equated "working, hard-working Americans" to "white Americans." No really... she did! A great response/analysis to these remarks can be found over at Salon. For me, this comment is absolutely the last straw.
Clinton is arrogant, belligerent, and her obstinent refusal to drop out of the campaign is killing her party's chances of winning the general election. Two weeks ago, I still contended that I was open-minded in this campaign, and therefore would vote for whoever got the Democratic nomination, but since then, I've changed my mind. It seems inevitable at this point that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee, and I'm thrilled.

I'm sorry, Hillary Clinton, but we are no longer friends.

Misogyny in America, Round #4

My friend Natalie recently introduced me to Current.com, the media website for which she works. It's very cool, and VERY necessary - I think it shows that democratic media is still possible in today's world of corporate media conglomerates. It also facilitates dialogue and discourse about current events and issues, which ensures that slanted news stories aren't just getting forced down our throats.

Unfortunately, the platform for open dialogue also allows some bigotry and ignorance to take some of the Internet limelight. I stumbled across the following comment in response to this video:

Women making peace?

Women want to rip eachother's hair out when another woman is wearing the same dress at the party.

I can already see her slashing the national security advisor's tires at first disgreement.

Clinton smoking wasn't the bad part. Things like NAFTA and ridiculously high minority jail rates for petty offenses had something to do with Billy not being a perfect president. Not going to war doesn't make a great president. He was a god compared to GW, though. I've had enough Clinton/Bush in my life.

I sill love you woman/women.

I couldn't hold my tongue after reading that one. My response:

shanesbaby... Your response is one of the most sexist things I've read in ages. "Women want to rip eachother's hair out when another woman is wearing the same dress at the party"? Seriously? It's statistically proven that men are 10x more likely than women to commit murder, and they are 9x as likely to end up in prison. Our current world political system is driven by the "masculine" ideals of militarization, intimidation, and self-interest, and just look where that has gotten us. A "feminine" approach to world politics, emphasizing cooperation and compassion over a belligerent pursuit of self-interest, could definitely do our world a lot of good. However, the overwhelming presence of hyper-masculinity in world affairs has, and will continue to, prevent a more compassionate breed of global interaction by disseminating these myths that women are more "driven by emotion" than men.

Some people! And the most incredible thing about this ridiculously sexist and ignorant commenter?

It was a WOMAN.... YIKES.

[EDIT]: To clarify, my belief that we need more "feminine" compassion in American politics does NOT mean I believe Hillary Clinton represents those values. SHAbang.

Brace Yo'self

Asian Inflation Begins to Sting U.S. Shoppers - New York Times

I've been whining about this for months, so it's interesting and kind of gratifying to finally see it in the Times. Americans have been living in a bubble of price distortion for way too long, and it will be interesting to see the fall-out.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to a turn away from over-sized SUV's and McMansions. The glorification of gluttony here is disgusting. But, it will be equally interesting to see how this affects the business and living decisions of China and the smaller Southeast Asian countries. A decrease in oil consumption could have some very profound positive effects - unless, of course, they just burn more coal. Um um I was trying to keep this short because I have to go read some contemporary French literature, so I'm just going to bullet-point my train of thought:

- Neo-liberal economics: actually zero-sum?
- How is this affecting US-owned MNC's?
- Wages & labor: turn back to regional production/consumption economics?
- Blame Bush

The Lorax is not pleased.

From the 2006 Millennium Development Goals Report:

"Protection of the ozone layer is a global success story.
The 1987 Montreal Protocol catalysed global action
to reduce use of chemicals damaging to the ozone
layer that shields the earth from ultraviolet radiation.
Since that agreement, developed countries have
virtually eliminated ozone-depleting substances, and
the developing world is not far behind. Without these
reductions, ozone depletion would have increased
tenfold by 2050compared to current levels, resulting
in millions more cases of melanoma, other cancers and
eye cataracts."

Interesting. And yet we cannot manage to agree to decrease our use of fossil-fuels? Very interesting.