'It is not "demographic pressure" that feeds the growing emigration to Europe and the West, or into Israel within the "green line" (aptly named, for you can see it from the air: where the green ends and the desert begins, right at the border). It is rather the failure of productive enterprise, the fatalistic spirit that expects all wealth to be delivered without effort and as a matter of right; or seized if it is not delivered.
'It is not "demographic pressure" that sends emigrants from vast, empty, resource-rich Morocco, towards crowded little Holland below sea-level. It is rather a deeper question of human ecology. For the countries of the Arab world that must live without oil, live by foreign aid (Morocco especially) -- or else slide into the most abject poverty.
'This has nothing to do even with natural resources -- Japan has almost none of those, nor Taiwan, nor Denmark, nor many other European countries. What they have instead is a culture of makers and traders, as opposed to raiders; traditions of enterprise that took centuries to build up (and may take centuries to be extinguished).'
Muslim societies, especially the Arabs, hate to be told stuff like this. They hate it for the same reason the 18-year-old high school dropout, sitting in front of MTV for 12 hours a day applying his Clearasil, hates Mom telling him to get up off his dead ass, get a job, and make something of himself. And their respone is much the same: resentment and digging deeper into sloth and self-justification.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 11:11 am ||
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PINK? Am I seeing pink? Or is it because I slept with the elephants last night fog my vision? Mary Lu
Posted by: Mary Wehmeier ||
05/19/2002 20:36 Comments ||
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I was trying to come up with something restful to the eyes. Instead it looks like it needs Visine. Guess I'll go back to blue...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2002 21:25 Comments ||
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The U.S. army said on Saturday that coalition warplanes had killed about 10 people in an operation against suspected al Qaeda and Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan. A 1,000-strong coalition force led by British Royal Marines has surrounded the rugged Khost-Paktia region in a new offensive named "Operation Condor." For all the waving of guns and issuing bloodcurdling threats the Bad Guys do, we sure kill a lot more of them than they do our guys.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 07:10 am ||
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A group of 70 American servicemen, comprising 50 instructors and 20 technical experts, arrived in Tbilisi May 19 in a military transport plane that took off from a U.S. Air Force base in Germany. During the next few days they will be familiarized with the conditions of their work in Georgia. Thought this would already be well under way...
U.S. Army Colonel Robert Voltmyer, the head of the group of American instructors, reported in a Tbilisi airport that the instructors will from May 27 start training Georgian Armed Forces General Staff officers and commanders of the anti-terror units. The training of nearly 100 staff officers and 100 anti-terror unit commanders will last for two months, Robert Voltmyer said at a briefing. From August it is planned to start implementing the main phase of the American program called Training and Equipping Georgia's Armed Forces. In the course of over 12 months about 2,000 Georgian servicemen under vigilant supervision of the overseas experts would be taking up special courses in tactical and fire drill. I'd imagine the delay had as much to do with coordinating with the Russians as with the Georgians...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 09:12 am ||
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Peace and normalcy was on a comeback trail in violence-ravaged Gujarat with no untoward incident reported from anywhere in the state for the sixth consecutive day on Sunday even as night curfew continued at many places as a precautionary measure. Life looked normal at many places and night curfew continued in sensitive pockets across the state as a precautionary measure, police said. Probably still too early to let out our collective breath, but it's a good sign. Wonder how they did it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 07:10 am ||
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A London-based Kashmiri organisation has condemned Tuesday's attack by terrorists near Jammu in which 32 people were killed, saying it was intended to undermine efforts to solve the Kashmir issue peacefully and trigger an Indo-Pak conflict. "It is evident that there are elements who plan to worsen the already strained relations between the two countries and their actions are aimed at sabotaging the efforts made by sensible people from both sides to ease tension and solve the Kashmir problem peacefully," Director of the Jammu and Kashmir National Awareness Campaign (JKNAC) MA Raina said. Bet it didn't take longer than 30 seconds to arrive at that conclusion.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 07:43 am ||
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Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh has said the recent terrorist strikes in Jammu "demanded retaliation" and that the "government is under pressure to launch selective strikes..." The entire nation clamoured for punitive action against Pakistan, he said. However, India had to weigh every option carefully before taking any action. In other words they want to do it, but they're not planning on going in swinging blindly.
Flaying the US for its "double standards" on Pak-aided terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, "We have been telling the world for the last 10-15 years that Pakistan is fomenting terrorism, that Pakistan is at the root of the problem, and now, when the global war against terrorism is at our doorstep, they have to realise there cannot be dual postures." He has a point. India and Israel have both been taking it harder and longer than the U.S. Unless we're willing to do it for them, why not let them solve their own problems and benefit from their solutions?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 07:54 am ||
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An unmanned US spy plane crashed near the Jacobabad airbase early morning on Saturday. No damage to life or property was reported. Reports said that the drone was 20 kilometres away from the Shahbaz Airbase when all of a sudden it blew up in the air near Behram Khan Khoso village. Its pieces were scattered all over in the area. The US personnel at the Jacobabad airbase, upon being informed of the incident, rushed to the scene. The area had been cordoned off by the police and other agencies for carrying out search operation. Wonder what it saw just before the end...?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 08:49 am ||
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Lack of financial resources, no coordination among the religious parties and less exposure among the masses have kept the Jamaat-i-Islami out of power right from its inception till to-date. It's not the lunacy of their platform or their leaders...
Provincial Amir of JI Prof Mohammad Ibrahim said that politics had become a "game of money" and in this race the JI had failed due to the lack of financial resources. He said that the leaders of political parties spent money during elections and then after coming into power they indulged in plundering of national wealth to recover their "investment". Kinda been Pakland's problem all along, hasn't it?
About the JI, he said that the party could not allow its members to use money in this manner. He said, piously...
Talking about another factor behind failure of the JI, Mohammed Ibrahim admitted that their less and limited exposure had equally contributed to their failure. He, however, added that this was the case with all the religious parties. He realizes that nobody listens to them except each other?
The Jamaat leader said that the party had left the field to two looters, adding that the people had no choice but to select one of them. Prof Ibrahim expressed the hope that this time the religious parties would be able to come up to the expectations of the people in the coming elections and provide people an alternative choice. "Alternative" isn't synonymous with "good." Only in places like Berkeley and Quetta do they believe such silly things. Upwards of 90 percent of the rubesmarks voters in Pakland have historically been smarter that.
He said another factor behind failure of religious parties was internal differences and rivalries which created hurdles in the way of their success. In this connection, he cited the example of accord reached between Nawaz Sharif and the JI, and the JUI alliance with Benazir Bhutto, and added that both the religious parties achieved nothing from their alliances. If you spend all your time denouncing each other and splitting into factions, that's an indication of how you'd run the government. And if you denounce the Nawaz and Bhutto factions as crooks and then crawl into bed with them, that doesn't indicate a deep attachment to principle on your part, does it?
The JI leader said that to avoid the mistakes of the past, the religious parties had formed Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, an electoral alliance for the coming elections, adding the religious parties would be successful in getting the support of the masses this time. To avoid the mistakes of the past they'll make some brand new ones.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 09:03 am ||
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The European Union has agreed how to distribute 13 Palestinian militants exiled to Europe, the Spanish Foreign Ministry says. Spain and Italy will each take three of the men, Greece and Ireland will each take two, and Portugal will accept one, the ministry said. We're sure their new neighbors are all looking forward to meeting them.
The ministry at first said that Finland would take one of the Palestinians, but after a denial from the Finnish Foreign Ministry, Spain said the man would go to Belgium. One of the men will remain on Cyprus. The conversation, roughly translated from Finnish, began, "What the hell is this? Are you nuts?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 07:10 am ||
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There was an explosion in the center of the Netanya market place, at the intersection of Herzog an Sha'an streets. According to Magen David Adom, two people are dead. Initial investigations are not clear if one of the dead is the suicide bomber. In addition, 21 people are injured, seven of them seriously. Intial reports indicate the bomber entered the area from Tulkarm, possibly in a taxi cab. FoxNews says there was a terror alert an hour before the bombing, which means their intel is very good. But you have to have details...
FoxNews reports that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has claimed the credit for the market attack. The head of PFLP is one of the thugs in Jericho. His buds want him sprung and Yasser was trying to figure a way to do it. When he was "arrested" in January his capos went nutz, too, and were rumored to be taking part in plots to dump Yasser. So the boomer probably has a much to do with internal PLO politix as with "rage against the Israelis." It's a thumb in Yasser's eye after his calls for an end to the boomers when he wasn't calling for a million martyrs.
Same source reports that Hamas is also claiming credit on Hezbollah TV. Still trying to bring on the attack in Gaza?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 09:23 am ||
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The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the bombing/shooting attack, which occurred this morning in the Gaza Strip. Four soldiers were lightly injured this morning when a bomb detonated alongside the military jeep they were driving. Shots were also fired at the vehicle. According to reports by Israel Radio, the blast caused the jeep to overturn. The soldiers were leading a convoy of cars on the Karni-Netzarim road in Northern Gush Katif, in the Gaza Strip. DFLP's already in the dustbin of history â a Marxist terror organization whose time has gone.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 08:05 am ||
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Yah, too bad their explosives and bullets haven't gone, too.
Twenty Palestinian Authority ministers, nearly two-thirds of the entire cabinet, have agreed to step-down. That might get them off the hit lists.
In a letter, sent to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, the ministers stated they would resign as part of a move towards holding PA elections and beginning to restructure the PA government. PA officials indicate the new government will have only 19 positions, many less than the current formation. You mean they're gonna have to get jobs?
This letter comes at the same time as CIA Director George Tenet announced he is ready to begin devising a plan to restructure the Palestinian Authority under one unified security force. White House officials said Tenet would meet with high-ranking Middle Eastern leaders, in an effort to bring about a cease fire. Forget it, George. A cease fire ain't gonna happen.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 08:11 am ||
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The London-based Asharq al-Awsat said it interviewed Abdel Azeem al-Muhajir, whom it described as a "senior military leader" of al-Qaida, in the western Pakistani mountains near the border with Afghanistan. Al-Muhajir told the paper that the April 11 truck-bombing of Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba "was carried out by brothers in the al-Qaida network." Azeem is a new one to me, which isn't surprising since there's been a certain amount of room for promotion within the al-Qaeda ranks lately. Once the Tunisians decided the synagogue bombing wasn't an accident, it took, ummm... 30 seconds to decide it might be al-Qaeda. That decision was helped along by the fact that they claimed the credit.
A source in Afghanistan said Al-Muhajir (the Immigrant) is also known as Abu Bilal Al Muhajir and is a Palestinian of Jordanian nationality. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Al-Muhajir was a member of the al-Qaida network, but was a midlevel administrator, rather than a top commander. When it comes to terrorism, you can't do better than a Palestinian, can you? Probably just coincidence that Zubaydah's one, too.
"News in the coming days will show the continuity, firmness, and determination of this (al-Qaida) group to develop itself," Al-Muhajir said, according to Asharq al-Awsat. Al-Muhajir was quoted as saying that al-Qaida has regrouped since the Taliban's ouster by U.S.-backed forces in Afghanistan. Blaming the defeat on U.S. air power, he was quoted as saying al-Qaida and Taliban fighters have come a long way in their training for a "soon-expected fight with appropriate arms." That "appropriate arms" part is worrying. There's about a 50-50 chence that the whole thing's bluster, but that leaves the other 50 percent that it's not. "Fourth Generation War" is pretty much a dead end â the Bad Guys can make life miserable for the rest of the world, as in Kashmir and Palestine, but when they get too big for their turbans the rest of the world can stomp them flat, as in Afghanistan or the West Bank.
He did not elaborate on the weapons to be used but was quoted as saying al-Qaida would give Americans "a more painful hit" than the Tunisian attack. We've been expecting a second wave since the first one hit. I was surprised there wasn't another one a week later, while the country was reeling from the first.
Saturday's article in Asharq al-Awsat was the second time in two days the newspaper has carried interviews attributed to senior figures of the Taliban-al-Qaida alliance. On Friday, the newspaper ran what it said was an interview with Mullah Mohammed Omar, the fugitive leader of the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Both interviews were conducted by reporter Badie Qorhani. According to the Saturday article, Qorhani traveled in a four-wheel drive vehicle along mountain roads for 12 hours before meeting al-Muhajir in a tent. Sounds like Qorhani would be a fine fellow to to turn and then put a tracking device on.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 07:55 am ||
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A video featuring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden uncovered in Britain has sparked new claims that the suspected mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks is still alive, the Sunday Times reported. It said the video was obtained by a British-based Islamic news agency, which claims that Pakistani intelligence officials who supplied the film said that part of the footage was filmed just eight weeks ago. So that'd make him alive in March...
If that is true, the film would be the first hard evidence that the chief suspect for the attacks on New York and Washington survived the US-led military assaults on the Tora Bora, eastern Afghanistan, the paper said. We kinda-sorta-mostly guessed that he did.
The 40-minute film came to Britain on an encrypted CD-Rom and was decoded by the agency based in Birmingham, central England, last week, the British weekly said. Oh, cheeze! NEVER let on that you can do that! You dumb spits!
It said that the part of the video that is claimed to have been filmed in March shows bin Laden sitting outside under a tree on what appears to be a pleasant spring evening. Sitting in the garden of a madrassah. We can even guess whose...
According to the paper, bin Laden appears thinner than in previous footage and his delivery lacks some of the zest of previous clips. That's because he's in end-stage renal failure and doesn't have much longer to live.
It quoted bin Laden was saying: "The war is between us and the Jews. Any country that steps into the same trench as the Jews has only herself to blame." There aren't any Jews to speak of in Afghanistan or Pakistan. What the hell are you doing there?
He adds that if he "specifically targeted Britain and America -- this war is not confined to them -- it served as an opportunity for other nations to revise their stance." "So get out there and burn those synagogues and support those gunnies!"
Had a glimpse of an excerpt on FoxNews. Binny looks about the same as he did in his last vid â made about the same time? He's skinny and he looked doped. Speculation was the vid was shot near Spin Boldak, though that can be taken with a grain of salt. Couldn't see his hands, but I'd bet my next paycheck they're swollen like they were last time.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/19/2002 09:28 am ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
