(Kabul, Afghanistan)
The polling stations have just closed across Afghanistan, on an election day inevitably marked by violence in a country once beautiful, but now a victim of Western rape.
The other night I was flicking and stopped on a Panorama report about women’s rights and the Taleban, surprised that an English television programme should suddenly be sympathetic to Afghans, let alone Afghan women. The journalist talked about today’s elections and Karzai’s militant social politics. Women who had attempted to burn themselves to death were interviewed, their hairless heads still wrapped in cloth. They had tried to reach freedom, but now bandages replaced the hijab.
Then the journalist muttered something like “British soldiers died in vain”.
Aha.
The programme wasn’t about Afghanistan or the atrocious situation that has arisen as a result of Western meddling and murdering, it was the usual nationalistic cry of “me, me, me”. It wasn’t about middle-aged Afghan women and their rights, it was about young lads from a rich country and how they had been “murdered”. It wasn’t about young girls and the possibility of a better life through education, rather it was about how badly the English have educated their own kids so that they think it is fine to go off round the world killing innocent people.
There was a photo on a sideboard of a young lad in military fatigues, striking a playground pose and brandishing a gun with the bayonet fixed. The bayonet, rather than the young lad’s face, was the focus of the photograph as if to say “Let’s go and disembowel some towelheads”.
Is it a shame that this boy died? Of course it is. Is it a shame that many other British soldiers have died? Indeed. But if one life is equal to any other life it is a far greater shame that between 11,000 and 31,000 Afghan civilians have died at the hands of fixed bayonets that should not have been there in the first place.
Yes, that lad died in vain, because in a rich Western country full of opportunities that places like Afghanistan do not have he went looking for trouble. And all soldiers die in vain because war is unnecessary. Panorama should be making programmes that could show the English that they have no right to put a gun to young Afghan girls’ heads. Then maybe their own little boys will stop dying.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Deny when you win, deny when you lose
(Calvià, Mallorca)
July has been a particularly bloody month in a particularly violent year for Spain. Bombs in Durango, Burgos and today in Mallorca have left two dead, forty-eight injured and extensive physical damage to surrounding buildings.
Every time there is news of another bomb attack in Spain people’s thoughts inevitably turn to the bombings at Atocha Station in 2004, the worst attack the country has suffered on its soil (Franco’s atrocities aside) since Napoleon’s troops retaliated against an uprising in Madrid in May 1808.
My window at work looked out over the station; it also looked out over the sea of umbrellas as a million and a half people flooded the streets of the capital to protest not only against the bombings but also against the right-wing government’s handling of the affair.
Of course, the Atocha bombings had nothing to do with ETA, in spite of the best efforts of Aznar, Zaplana, Pastor and the comic-book simpleton Acebes to convince the world otherwise. We all knew almost immediately that it wasn’t ETA – it didn’t feel like them, it didn’t sound like them. ETA generally give warnings, and while it’s true they don’t always do so what they never do is deny responsibility afterwards, and Arnaldo Otegi’s words after news of the bombings had hit the television screens were the equivalent of a denial.
There was also the small matter of the reaction of the Spanish police. Nobody but the most deluded ever took Aznar’s regime seriously, but the police are not generally considered to be fools. The government could bleat what it liked, but the police had a serious job to do, and already on the Friday morning (the day after the attacks) there were lecheras blocking the streets around Lavapiés and north African men lined up facing the wall as the anti-terrorist brigade tracked down the people who had provided the mobile phones which had been used in the attacks.
In 2007 I was chatting to a young Spanish professional when the subject of Atocha came up. He was a nice enough bloke in his late twenties, smartly dressed and well-spoken, university-educated and well-travelled. However, this apparently educated man tried to convince me that the bombings were instigated by Zapatero, in collusion with ETA, in order to fool the people into thinking that it had been al-Qaeda so that they would vote against Aznar.
He tried to lend weight to his theory by stating that as he was a member of the Partido Popular he was privy to such intimate details of the Spanish political panorama. This theory, he claimed, was gospel among the ranks of pepeístas.
Today I was chatting to another Spanish person, a young woman who would fit the general description I have just given of the young man. She tried to convince me that Franco had never been all that bad, and that the atrocities that the “reds” would have committed had they won the Civil War would have been “worse than a hundred Francos”.
The Spanish are predominantly (and peacefully) socialistas and republicanos, and yet this country of contrasts never ceases to amaze me as it throws up the sort of person who would make not just Franco but Hitler proud.
Every aspect of modern Spanish history is tortuously complicated, but basically ETA was founded as a direct challenge to the brutality of Franco’s totalitarian regime and the organisation still generally targets the Civil Guard, seen by Basque nationalists as the inheritor of Franco’s men. Socialist governments tend to favour dialogue whereas the PP tends to favour torture and oppression. So if the PP with its intransigence, lies and dictatorial attitude were ever to get back into power Spain could expect even more blood and violence. And more denial.
July has been a particularly bloody month in a particularly violent year for Spain. Bombs in Durango, Burgos and today in Mallorca have left two dead, forty-eight injured and extensive physical damage to surrounding buildings.
Every time there is news of another bomb attack in Spain people’s thoughts inevitably turn to the bombings at Atocha Station in 2004, the worst attack the country has suffered on its soil (Franco’s atrocities aside) since Napoleon’s troops retaliated against an uprising in Madrid in May 1808.
My window at work looked out over the station; it also looked out over the sea of umbrellas as a million and a half people flooded the streets of the capital to protest not only against the bombings but also against the right-wing government’s handling of the affair.
Of course, the Atocha bombings had nothing to do with ETA, in spite of the best efforts of Aznar, Zaplana, Pastor and the comic-book simpleton Acebes to convince the world otherwise. We all knew almost immediately that it wasn’t ETA – it didn’t feel like them, it didn’t sound like them. ETA generally give warnings, and while it’s true they don’t always do so what they never do is deny responsibility afterwards, and Arnaldo Otegi’s words after news of the bombings had hit the television screens were the equivalent of a denial.
There was also the small matter of the reaction of the Spanish police. Nobody but the most deluded ever took Aznar’s regime seriously, but the police are not generally considered to be fools. The government could bleat what it liked, but the police had a serious job to do, and already on the Friday morning (the day after the attacks) there were lecheras blocking the streets around Lavapiés and north African men lined up facing the wall as the anti-terrorist brigade tracked down the people who had provided the mobile phones which had been used in the attacks.
In 2007 I was chatting to a young Spanish professional when the subject of Atocha came up. He was a nice enough bloke in his late twenties, smartly dressed and well-spoken, university-educated and well-travelled. However, this apparently educated man tried to convince me that the bombings were instigated by Zapatero, in collusion with ETA, in order to fool the people into thinking that it had been al-Qaeda so that they would vote against Aznar.
He tried to lend weight to his theory by stating that as he was a member of the Partido Popular he was privy to such intimate details of the Spanish political panorama. This theory, he claimed, was gospel among the ranks of pepeístas.
Today I was chatting to another Spanish person, a young woman who would fit the general description I have just given of the young man. She tried to convince me that Franco had never been all that bad, and that the atrocities that the “reds” would have committed had they won the Civil War would have been “worse than a hundred Francos”.
The Spanish are predominantly (and peacefully) socialistas and republicanos, and yet this country of contrasts never ceases to amaze me as it throws up the sort of person who would make not just Franco but Hitler proud.
Every aspect of modern Spanish history is tortuously complicated, but basically ETA was founded as a direct challenge to the brutality of Franco’s totalitarian regime and the organisation still generally targets the Civil Guard, seen by Basque nationalists as the inheritor of Franco’s men. Socialist governments tend to favour dialogue whereas the PP tends to favour torture and oppression. So if the PP with its intransigence, lies and dictatorial attitude were ever to get back into power Spain could expect even more blood and violence. And more denial.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Waste not, want not
(Dublin, Ireland)
The financial situation in Ireland is well-known around the world; all the neighbours have watched as the failing banks have hung the country’s dirty knickers on the line. This week the extravagant junkets of former tourism minister John O’Donoghue and his wife have come to light, straining the ability to be shocked at government incompetence to the limit.
This squander by the ruling regime is akin to the father of a poor family going out to buy expensive alloy wheels for his car while his children go hungry. Government ministers should be working on the same shoestring as the people, and their partners should stay at home instead of going on holiday at the expense of the Irish workforce.
The likes of O’Donoghue should think on – come the next election he’ll be out of a job too. Then he’ll be bleating about how much the next government is wasting. And his tongue will be nowhere near his overfed cheek.
The financial situation in Ireland is well-known around the world; all the neighbours have watched as the failing banks have hung the country’s dirty knickers on the line. This week the extravagant junkets of former tourism minister John O’Donoghue and his wife have come to light, straining the ability to be shocked at government incompetence to the limit.
This squander by the ruling regime is akin to the father of a poor family going out to buy expensive alloy wheels for his car while his children go hungry. Government ministers should be working on the same shoestring as the people, and their partners should stay at home instead of going on holiday at the expense of the Irish workforce.
The likes of O’Donoghue should think on – come the next election he’ll be out of a job too. Then he’ll be bleating about how much the next government is wasting. And his tongue will be nowhere near his overfed cheek.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
I'm innocent (but punish me anyway)
(New York, USA)
Earlier this month Shell agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle a lawsuit which alleged that the company were behind the campaign of “murder, torture and other abuses” perpetrated by Nigeria’s former military government. Shell denied any involvement before inexplicably accepting the financial imposition. Malcolm Brinded, executive director for exploration and production, was reported as saying, “Shell has always maintained the allegations were false”.
According to the Forbes Global 2000 list for 2009 Shell is the second biggest company in the world, so I imagine the compensation figure will not represent any hardship for them. As a proportion of their annual profit (as listed by Forbes) it would be the equivalent of my paying around ten cents of my own salary (if my sums are right).
The difference is that I would not be prepared to pay even ten cents for something I had not done. I contribute to charity on a monthly basis and I would have no problem in attempting to help any community in as desperate a situation as the Ogoni people of the Niger delta, but I would not pay for a crime I had not committed and I would certainly not allow such a serious charge as that levelled at Shell to be attached to my name.
Perhaps, if I was guilty, and somebody offered me the chance of paying ten cents to avoid any prosecution and the subsequent confirmation of guilt I would overcome my principles and accept. Perhaps if I was the sort of person who was guilty of such crimes there would be no principles to overcome. I would bite their hand off. If I was guilty.
It is clear then that I don’t understand one important detail – if Shell are innocent, why have they paid up?
And the Nigeria affair begs another question – how bad does the situation in Mayo have to become before it is necessary for Shell to settle with the Irish government?
Gloomsday, or the annual Lisbon referendum
(Dublin, Ireland)
Last week Dublin got its glad rags on to celebrate Bloomsday. For those who don’t know, this is the day when all the people who claim to have understood James Joyce’s “Ulysses” flock to certain landmark places in the city and gaze in self-satisfied delight at what the emperor is wearing.
In the same week Taoiseach Brian Cowen urged Irish voters to say yes to the Lisbon treaty as he announced that the government was about to make a formal decision on the date for a new referendum. Naughty children, you got it wrong so you’ll have to do it again. It is reminiscent of the referendum on the Treaty of Nice which the Irish electorate “got wrong” in 2001 and were forced to repeat until they “got it right”. It also reminds me of how the mothers of my childhood would serve the previous night’s dinner at breakfast time to bring recalcitrant children into line.
Perhaps, in a land so steeped in tradition, this could become a new annual festival. The people could mill around outside the schools that are used as polling stations, dressed as Declan Ganley, Václav Klaus or Durão Barroso, and spout the stream-of-consciousness rhetoric of our leading pallyticians. They could call it “Gloomsday”, because it is a sorry day indeed when the government is allowed to instruct the people how to vote.
Last week Dublin got its glad rags on to celebrate Bloomsday. For those who don’t know, this is the day when all the people who claim to have understood James Joyce’s “Ulysses” flock to certain landmark places in the city and gaze in self-satisfied delight at what the emperor is wearing.
In the same week Taoiseach Brian Cowen urged Irish voters to say yes to the Lisbon treaty as he announced that the government was about to make a formal decision on the date for a new referendum. Naughty children, you got it wrong so you’ll have to do it again. It is reminiscent of the referendum on the Treaty of Nice which the Irish electorate “got wrong” in 2001 and were forced to repeat until they “got it right”. It also reminds me of how the mothers of my childhood would serve the previous night’s dinner at breakfast time to bring recalcitrant children into line.
Perhaps, in a land so steeped in tradition, this could become a new annual festival. The people could mill around outside the schools that are used as polling stations, dressed as Declan Ganley, Václav Klaus or Durão Barroso, and spout the stream-of-consciousness rhetoric of our leading pallyticians. They could call it “Gloomsday”, because it is a sorry day indeed when the government is allowed to instruct the people how to vote.
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