[Bangla Daily Star] Asatisfactory solution to the problem of minorities plays a very crucial role in the formation of successful mega-nations. The factors to be addressed are language, race, ethnicity, and religion. The composition of the mega-states can also vary. The Huns are predominant in China, representing 92% of the population.
India and Indonesia consist of many ethnic groups. In India, for instance, 72% of the people are Indo-Aryans; Dravidians constitute 24% of the population and barely 28% are Hindustani. Indonesia consists of Javanese (39%), Sundanese (16%) and Malays (12%).
Africa faces a major demographic problem with two-fifth of the population being minorities, whereas in Western democracies and Latin America the minorities represent only one-tenth of the population. The erstwhile Communist countries had no visible minority problem, but the myth of a Communist solution went kaboom! with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
The minority consciousness of race, religion or culture normally crystallises to a feeling of deprivation and exploitation and the belief that there is a permanent majority and a permanent minority. However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... the discrimination of the minority is not always a fact of contemporary history; the apartheid regime in South Africa insulated and pampered the white minorities, raising their standard of living to the level of any First World country, while leaving the majority black population deprived.
In an effort to address the problem of minorities, various alternatives -- autonomy, self-government or secession -- have been tried out in various phases of modern history. The experience of the aborigines in Australia and that of the Indians in North and South America indicates that the process of assimilation can lead to a serious backlash. Through genocide and forced assimilation, one ethnic group tries to gain control over another.
There is now a trend towards reconciliation and integration. It is based on a policy that does not obliterate but accommodates plurality of cultures and ethnic and religious minority groups. The policies of affirmative action and reservations in the United States and India respectively are successful examples of a process of accommodation. External mediation has also been effective in Africa. Within the ambit of one-person, one-vote, institutional protection for minorities has been provided in Zim-bob-we and post-apartheid South Africa.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... by far the most practical solution to the problem is power-sharing. This ensures that every segment of society has a role in the process of taking decisions as also a rough parity in the share of public resources. Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... and Belgium are the prime examples of this model.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2013 00:00 ||
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[NYT] UNTIL we fully understand what turned two brothers who allegedly perpetrated the Boston Marathon bombings into murderers, it is hard to make any policy recommendation other than this: We need to redouble our efforts to make America stronger and healthier so it remains a vibrant counterexample to whatever bigoted ideology may have gripped these young men. With all our warts, we have built a unique society -- a country where a black man, whose middle name is Hussein, whose grandfather was a Muslim, can run for president and first defeat a woman in his own party and then four years later a Mormon from the opposition, and no one thinks twice about it. With so many societies around the world being torn apart, especially in the Middle East, it is vital that America survives and flourishes as a beacon of pluralism.
#1
We need to redouble our efforts to make America stronger and healthier so it remains a vibrant counterexample to whatever bigoted ideology may have gripped these young men.
Not going to work as long as the Education Indoctrination institution pushes diversity over assimilation and continuously hawks 'Evil America' over the true perspective of history that it has granted the most opportunity and economic advancement for more people than any other major nation. A curriculum of warts doesn't promote anything other than regression to tribalism.
#2
We understand what makes two brothers perpetrate the bombing, some just don't want to accept the answer. Considering Friedman was a middle east expert he comes off as particularly dim.
#3
Considering Friedman was a middle east expert he comes off as particularly dim.
That's because the highly paid gentleman is not an expert, rjschwarz, he merely writes about it a lot... and gets invited to fancy dinner parties hosted by Saudi princes, who politely pretend they will consider some throwaway thought he had while the soup course was being cleared.
VDH
Furthermore, the politically driven distortion of recent gun violence was aimed not just at passing gun-control legislation, but also at demonizing opponents for the 2014 elections. That is why President Obama's political guru, David Axelrod, almost immediately floated the idea that the catalyst for the Boston violence was "tax day," in a not-so-subtle insinuation that just maybe some right-wing tea-party types had set off the bombs. That theme soon metamorphosed among the Left into charges that right-wing-inspired sequestration had curbed law-enforcement vigilance and that right-wing opposition to laws against acquiring explosives had enabled the bombers.
In President Obama's State of the Union Address this February, he cited current inclement weather to argue for renewed efforts to implement some type of cap-and-trade taxes and to grant more subsidies of "sustainable energy" (e.g., wind and solar): "Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods -- all are now more frequent and intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen, were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science -- and act before it's too late."
Yesterday came confirmation, in the form of a promised comprehensive progress report on Benghazi, of what I had prognosticated back in November, 2012.
In the fullness of time it will transpire that the woman who crack[ed] the whip at Foggy Bottom had decided to leave the U.S. embassy in Libya undefended.
The open community center [The Hildebeast] was running there was meant to signal that the war on Libya, Hillarys special project, was a success. (Recall, Libya was a war of the womb, a product of the romantic minds of three women who fantasized about an Arab awakening. This estrogen-driven paternalism on steroids began, as in Greek mythology, with the Gorgon sisters. Medusas posse included Samantha Power, and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. They helped Hillary devise the casus belli for the war.)
#1
I suspect someone in the democratic party hierarchy doesn't want Hillary to run for President in 2016 so they are trying to disable her as an effective candidate.
If she's culpable, so's the ONE
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/24/2013 11:09 Comments ||
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We've been following Dr. Jasser for years. He embodies, I think, the Platonic ideal of a moderate Muslim, American style. This essay is important enough that it is presented here entire and untranslated, exactly as published. Given that the National Review editor blurbed it "The one and only," I'm sure they will understand this once.
[NationalReview] The terror attacks in Boston, perpetrated by the Tsarnaev brothers, have finally come to an end with the capture of the younger brother Dzhoakhar in Watertown on Friday evening. One hopes that Dzhoakhar survives just long enough to tell us whether he was working with any foreign or domestic Islamist groups before he hopefully meets the same fate of his victims. Our nation will certainly be resilient, and we cannot let terrorists achieve their goals of unraveling our society.
Perhaps Boston's terror may finally be the impetus to begin the long overdue process of retooling America's current counterterrorism strategies. Since 9-11, except for the Fort Hood massacre, we have been fortunate enough to avoid the kind of devastation and loss of life that we saw this week in Boston. That was certainly not for a lack of trying by our enemies, with over 300 arrests on terrorism charges since 9-11. Of these, over 80 percent were Islamists. I've said it before -- after 9-11, after Fort Hood, and after Times Square, this is a Muslim problem that needs a Muslim solution.
#3
A quick comment as it relates to Boston. With regards to Chechens. When Umarov declared Jihad on the US in 2007, he was heavily denounced within Chechnya and in 2008 his radical non-nationalist direction resulted in a notable split within the Chechen ranks.
#5
Wasn't there a fellow named Gramsci who developed a tool to dehumanize a society in order to disrupt its harmony and economy? But he wasn't a Muslim. Not that it matters.
[Dawn] IS not casting a vote a sin? If it is then the envisaged fatwa occupies the other end of the spectrum in which some Learned Elders of Islam consider the electoral process -- in fact democracy itself -- un-Islamic. But over the decades, there has been a sea-change in this thinking. Some leading religious parties, initially opposed to Western-style democracy and elections, have reversed their position and taken part in polls. For the people of Pakistain, however, a fatwa this way or that is of no consequence, because over the last 50 years, they have unmistakably settled for democracy and never seen the issue of voting or not voting as a religious one. Against this background, the outcome of a meeting of Learned Elders of Islam in Islamabad on Thursday will be watched with interest. If not voting voluntarily is a sin, what position will the Learned Elders of Islam adopt in cases where women are prevented from voting? Are the women guilty of sin or should we hold as sinners those who keep them away from the polling booth? The issue is relevant to some parts of the country where traditions have stood in the way of a woman's right to exercise her franchise.
The Islamabad moot is to be attended by virtually all political parties; that should give us an idea of its importance. If the conference makes progress, there will be a larger convention of 5,000 Learned Elders of Islam, representing all schools of fiqh, including those from Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and Al-Azhar. Let us hope the conference does not get bogged down in dogmatic hair-splitting, and, instead, the learned participants adopt a position that recognises the modern political ethos and upholds a democratic approach. The Pakistain Ulema Council will use the occasion to launch a 40-page booklet, which deals with electoral issues in the light of Sharia. The PUC's thrust has been towards a more liberal interpretation of the texts. For that reason, it would be interesting to see what response it evokes from the more tradition-bound sections of the Learned Elders of Islam.
What on earth will Pakistan do if the ulema conclude that democracy is haram?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] IN its recently released report on the 2007 showdown between the state and forces of Evil holed up inside an Islamabad mosque, the Lal Masjid commission has absolved the army of responsibility for the debacle. Instead, blame has been placed on the shoulders of Gen Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz and members of the cabinet at the time. But before the state files murder charges -- as recommended by the one-judge commission -- we must ask whether these recommendations are in consonance with some aspects of the affair that need greater critical appraisal. In other words, the sensitive nature of such an investigation should have entailed far broader terms of reference for the commission than merely affixing blame and focusing on compensation issues.
There are three crucial aspects of the Lal Masjid operation that can be considered independently of the report: a) the military operation that resulted in clearing the mosque of forces of Evil and the death of many civilians was an institutional decision, not solely that of Gen Musharraf, who was then army chief; b) the situation in the capital had been allowed to come to such a pass that a military operation became necessary; c) the operation was badly mishandled, resulting in the death of all those who were inside the complex, not just the thugs. True, there was justification for the operation. The Lal Masjid forces of Evil had challenged the writ of the state in the heart of Islamabad. Aside from the seminary students' moral policing in the capital, Sharia 'courts' were set up inside the mosque and there were a number of fire-fights with the police, paramilitary and army even before the military launched its operation. Heavy weaponry was stashed inside the place of worship -- and later used by forces of Evil during the siege.
While the details of the siege itself were covered extensively by the media, very little is known about the identity of the armed forces of Evil who were in control of the mosque complex and their agenda. Here is where a bigger probe is needed; and also to answer what went on inside the complex during the operation and what prompted the military to act in a way that there was no survivor to give an alternative version of events. It can only be hoped that a wider probe will also summon army officials. Fact and fiction must be separated before blame is affixed on those responsible for carrying out a flawed operation and those whose terrorising tactics were getting out of hand.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2013 00:00 ||
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by Richard Falk [FOREIGNPOLICYJOURNAL] The American global domination project is bound to generate all kinds of resistance in the post-colonial world. In some respects, the United States has been fortunate not to experience worse blowbacks, and these may yet happen, especially if there is no disposition to rethink US relations to others in the world, starting with the Middle East. Some of us naively hoped that Obama's Cairo speech of 2009 was to be the beginning of such a process of renewal, and although timid in many ways, it was yet possessed of a tonality candidly acknowledged that relations with the Islamic world needed fundamental moves by the US Government for the sake of reconciliation, including the adoption of a far more balanced approach to the Palestine/Israel impasse. But as the months passed, what became evident, especially given the strong pushback by Israel and its belligerent leader, Bibi Netanyahu, were a series of disappointing reactions by Obama, which could be described as an accelerating backpedaling in relation to opening political space in the Middle East.
Now at the start of his second presidential term, it seems that Obama has given up altogether, succumbing to the Beltway ethos of Israel First. Obama has acknowledged the constraints on his freedom to maneuver on these foreign policy issues, and seeks to confine his legacy ambitions to such domestic concerns as immigration, gun control, and health care. In so doing, he is virtually abandoning the international agenda except to manage crisis diplomacy in ways that do not disturb the global status quo or weaken America's global reach. Obama's March trip to Israel was highlighted by his March 21st speech in Jerusalem, which was delivered as a love letter to the Israeli public rather than qualifying as a good faith effort to demonstrate his belief in a just peace. Such obsequious diplomacy was a disappointment even to those of us with low expectations in what the White House is willing to overcome the prolonged ordeal of the Palestinian people.
From Wikipedia: "Richard Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, the author or co-author of 20 books and the editor or co-editor of another 20 books, speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to two United Nations positions on the Palestinian territories.
In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Falk to a six-year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah yes: because the rest of the Middle East hates Jews, the US should at least half-hate Jews too. Makes perfect sense.
The people of Boston are no longer being terrorized by the Marathon bombers, but amnesty supporters sure are.
On CNN's "State of the Union" last weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham's response to the Boston Marathon bombers being worthless immigrants who hate America -- one of whom the FBI cleared even after being tipped off by Russia -- was to announce: "The fact that we could not track him has to be fixed."
Track him? How about not admitting him as an immigrant?
As if it's a defense, we're told Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (of the Back Bay Tsarnaevs) were disaffected "losers" -- the word used by their own uncle -- who couldn't make it in America. Their father had already returned to Russia. Tamerlan had dropped out of college, been arrested for domestic violence and said he had no American friends. Dzhokhar was failing most of his college courses. All of them were on welfare.
(Dzhokhar was given everything America had to offer, and now he only has one thing in his future to look forward to ... a tenured professorship.)
My thought is, maybe we should consider admitting immigrants who can succeed in America, rather than deadbeats.
But we're not allowed to "discriminate" in favor of immigrants who would be good for America. Instead of helping America, our immigration policies are designed to help other countries solve their internal problems by shipping their losers to us.
The problem isn't just illegal immigration. I would rather have doctors and engineers sneaking into the country than legally arriving ditch-diggers.
Teddy Kennedy's 1965 immigration act so dramatically altered the kinds of immigrants America admits that, since 1969, about 85 percent of legal immigrants have come from the Third World. They bring Third World levels of poverty, fertility, illegitimacy and domestic violence with them. When they can't make it in America, they simply go on welfare and sometimes strike out at Americans.
#2
Apparently both Tsarnaev parents had been lawyers back home, and Papa Tsarnaev had also trained as a boxer -- Elder Brother Tsarnaev was trained by his papa before he arrived at the gym for which he fought. So by the standards in the article, the family should have been welcomed with open arms.... as they were for other reasons.
#3
Unfortunately I don't remember the Guest Pert's name right now, but he said on FNC something akin to - "Immigration Reform" in Washington is about trying to stop illegal immigration at the US Borders, WHILE THE CURRENT BILL/LEGISLATION BEFORE POTUS OBAMA IS ABOUT HOW TO ACCOMODATE THE MANY MANY MILYUHNS OF ILLEGALS ALREADY INSIDE THE US".
The priority in GOP-DEM Washington is protecting the SOON-TO-BE-REGIONALIZED-N-GLOBALIZED US WELFARE-NANNY STATE, AKA THE EXCESSIVELY MASSIVE US ENTITLEMENT STATE, SUB-AKA HOW THE DEMOLEFT GETS ITSELF ELECTED + RE-ELECTED EVERY ELECTORAL PERIOD.
Both the GOP-Right + DemoLeft know that there isn't enuff incoming gross or net revenues, or budget outlays, to pay for same, THUS ONE OF THEIR METHODS IS TO INTENTIONALLY LEAVE US BORDERS UNSECURED, ALLOWING MILYUHNS + DILYUHNS OF ILLEGALS TO ENTER THE US TO BE CARED FOR BY BOTH SMALL + BIG BUSINESS WHILE PRETENDING US WAGE + PUBLIC ASSSISTANCE LAWS, ETC. ARE ACTUALLY BEING FOLLOWED.
Not counting any "long wars" involving the US versus China andor Iran, both the US Welfare-N-Nanny State, + risk of islamist-led Jihadi terrorism in Amerika, is very likely to intensify + worsen once the US is formly entrenched + suborned under OWG-NWO + the various Global Fed "Unions" + related.
* IIRC See DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND > OBAMA POLITICAL ARM INVOKES/STRIKES FEAR IN GOP.
ARTIC = DENOTES THAT THE ATTITUDE OF THE BAMMER-LED DEMOLEFT IS TO "TAKE NO PRISONERS/DESTROY THEM ALL" AS PER THE GOP-RIGHT FOR THE 2014-2016 ELEX.
For the Marxist-Globalists + aligned to prevail, POTUS BAMMER'S SUCCESSOR COME JAN.2017 M-U-S-T BE ANOTHER "GLOBALIST" = ANTI-US MARXIST-ANARCHIST-GLOBALIST.
I concur wid those on the Net whom believe SecState Kerry may run for POTUS in 2016 - as things stand, THE POSSIBLE DEMOCRATIC POTUS CANDIDATE FIELD FOR 2016 IS VERY V-E-R-Y POWERFUL COMPARED TO THE POST-FISCAL CLIFF, SEEMINGLY CONFUSED, "MENSHEVIK" REPUBLICAN PARTY.
IMO nothing illustrates it better than FLOTUS Michelle loking extremely bothered by JOhn Boehner at a public pol event - "DON'T BOTHER ME UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO BOLSHEVIK/PURGE YOUR SAD, FASCIST = LIMITED COMMUNIST, MENSHEVIK REPUBLICAN LOSER ASS".
The DemoLeft + anti-US Globies going full monty Stalin on the GOP Trotsyites.
ANN COULTER IS CORRECT - OWG + "GLOBALISM" + UNCONTROLLED, MOSTLY PRO-DEMOCRAT/DEMOLEFT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION = THE GOP-RIGHT AS AN ORGANIZED MAJOR US POLITICAL PARTY-MOVEMENT = "ESTABLISHMENT" FORCE MAY BE EXTINCT AFTER 2020 - 2025.
AMERICA'S OBITUARY = GOP-RIGHT'S OBITUARY = CAUSE OF DEATH IS "SELF-SUICIDE".
* POST-2025 > America irreversibly devo towards either SINOMERIKA, HISPANOAMERIKA/HISPAMERIKA, or ISLAMOMERIKA???
Mainly Hispanic or Chinese Mainstream whom is also Muslim???
What part of "9-11 + GWOT = War for Anti-Status Quo + Control of the World" did we not understand???
In the wee hours of Friday morning, April 19th, I evolved on guns.
First, a confession: Ive never owned a gun. I never wanted one in my home and, like a lot of moms, I wanted to raise non-violent children and thought keeping guns out of our home was one way to do that. When my kids were young, I didnt want them to play with toy guns in fact, I was rather insistent about it. Eventually, I realized that little boys will make guns out of just about anything bananas, sticks, the dogs paw, their fingers nothing is safe from their imaginative minds. So I compromised and allowed squirt guns and non-gun-looking Nerf guns, but nothing that resembled a real gun. Very well-thought-out piece. Read it all.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/24/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I actually think it would be better to disarm the state and deputise armed civilians as needed.
#8
700+ Kiowa, Comanch, Cheyenne vs 28 Buffalo hunters armed with Sharps = the Buffalo Hunters win (2nd Battle of Adobe Walls). See also battle of Buffalo Wallow. 6 troopers and scouts vs 100's of Indians. On the Plains, shooters were dropping Indians a mile away.
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.
[Dawn] IS not casting a vote a sin? If it is then the envisaged fatwa occupies the other end of the spectrum in which some 
[FOREIGNPOLICYJOURNAL] The American global domination project is bound to generate all kinds of resistance in the post-colonial world. In some respects, the United States has been fortunate not to experience worse blowbacks, and these may yet happen, especially if there is no disposition to rethink US relations to others in the world, starting with the Middle East. Some of us naively hoped that Obama's Cairo speech of 2009 was to be the beginning of such a process of renewal, and although timid in many ways, it was yet possessed of a tonality candidly acknowledged that relations with the Islamic world needed fundamental moves by the US Government for the sake of reconciliation, including the adoption of a far more balanced approach to the Palestine/Israel impasse. But as the months passed, what became evident, especially given the strong pushback by Israel and its belligerent leader, Bibi Netanyahu, were a series of disappointing reactions by Obama, which could be described as an accelerating backpedaling in relation to opening political space in the Middle East.
The people of Boston are no longer being terrorized by the Marathon bombers, but amnesty supporters sure are.
