1. criticism of the government is a Crime AND
2. there is really no Opposition of note;
any kind of ‘election’ appears pointless.
The winds of democracy and Hope seem a million miles away from Turkmenistan...
While my gaze is focused on the former Soviet union I may as well check out some of the fellow new Eastern Bloc countries....
Belarus-
The deceptively handsome Lenny ‘Lucky’ Luckshenko
Surely more crazy than the Turkmenistan Tyrant is the similarly dictator-like but less eccentric President Lukashenko. Before a vote had been cast in last Sunday’s Belarusian parliamentary elections, it was known - to everyone but the most comatose- that there could be only one winner, and one winner there was...Yes, Mr Lukashenko has done it again..A big pat on the back for gaining a frankly unnatural 82.6% of the ‘votes’. International Election monitors commented that the semblance of Opposition members had more than succumbed to “a pattern of intimidation”. But the re-elected Belarusian ‘Lucky’ Lukashenko surmised that the election showed “who’s the boss” with a wry and un-needed smile that only a Cheshire cat should be proud of. There were some riots in the capital, Minsk, but they were quickly quelled after Lukashenko sent the police in with a “wring the necks” order......
I would cast my distance-transcending vision onto Kazakhstan and Kyrgistan but there is already a mixture of Fear and Depression spreading into my mind. I don’t think it’s in my best interests to finger too many savage killers in each news report.....though better for the world as a whole??Yes. Because Knowledge needs to be spread. That well-worn and usually badly delivered Saying,
“a butterfly’s wings flapping in the Amazonian jungle could well cause a tornado in Brixton”, has more than an ounce of truth to it. Just by been part of the human race, I feel it is essential to at least try stay as aware as possible inre: how My Breed are existing around the globe that we pretty much control( but only enough to fuck it up i.e. not enough to work in tandem to produce the wonderful duality of humans and the earth being one and the same..)...As my knowledge of the contemporary Eastern Bloc grows, so does my intention to keep well away from any country which ends in -Stan..
While Africa looks set to lose up to 15 million lives to famine and war–over the coming years–the Chinese can celebrate a steady increase in their human numbers with the Asian Powerhouse’s population reaching a current figure of 1.307billion.
Due to fears of Global warming, The US are withdrawing their military forces from Iceland. The country which has existed on a sheet of ice–5 miles deep-for 10,000 years, looks set to be the first casualty of the grossly underestimated Nature vs Humanity battle. Interestingly-for any warlords looking for a country to invade-the retraction of the small but powerful fighting force will leave Iceland completely defenceless..
President Bush, in an attempt to further his reputation as ‘International Fool of the decade', said this...
“Who cares? Those fuckers are gunna melt like a Cornetto in the Sahara. I refuse to put any more American Lives in Jeopardy unless there are some $$ in it”
Jimmy carter. Old but his Mind is still sharp as a bayonet.
Former President of the USA Jimmy carter, who helped establish much needed Peace between Egypt and Israel back in 1978, wrote this conclusion of the current Jewish troubles, in last week’s Tel Aviv based newspaper, Ha’aretz,
“The pre-eminent obstacle to peace is Israel’s colonisation of Palestine. Israel’s occupation of Palestine has obstructed a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land, regardless of whether Palestinians had no formalised government, one headed by Yasser Arafat or Mahmoud Abbas, or with Abbas as president and Hamas controlling the parliament and cabinet....Especially troublesome is Israel’s construction of huge concrete dividing walls in populated areas and high fences in rural areas- located entirely on Palestinian territory and often deep intrusions to encompass more land and settlements....This will never be acceptable either to Palestinians or to the international community, and will inevitably precipitate increased tension and violence within Palestine, and stronger resentment and animosity from the Arab world against America, which will be held accountable for the plight of the Palestinians”
I couldn’t agree more Jimmy...
Israel recently launched a trademark bloodthirsty raid-( the worst aspect of which is that it was carried out to win votes in the upcoming Israeli elections)--- on an Palestinian jail in Jericho only moments after British Monitors vacated the area with the utmost haste(and foreknowledge I would assume)..Tanks were used to shell the shit out of the compound before the bulldozers were sent in to smash the buildings into crude fragments of their former glory. The siege was aimed at capturing Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who finally gave himself up after a whole day’s worth of oppressive Israeli firepower—which reminds me of a scene I saw recently on a BBC Documentary profiling the struggle for Peace in the Middle East........:::
Former Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat.(died in 2005)
Jewish armed forces had the former Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, cornered in his presidential home, like a frightened wolverine..The tanks had been there for a good few days with the increasingly angry Arafat pacing up and down the battements wondering why the fuck these people wouldn’t just leave him alone..That was until they started shelling the area with their advanced gun torrents...Yasser ran straight down the main hall, stopping only to pick up a ak47 before aiming his fury for the entrance...His aim was to face the tanks wit his gun, single-handedly, but he was ceremoniously halted a few yards from certain death, by a humane security person. The bearded dwarf’s indignation and ideas were logical and reasonable given the situation of facing a wall of heavily armoured tanks...It was encouraging in a humane way to see a man prepared to die for his people. I doubt very much we would ever have seen Sharon leading the line as his troops razed another village of children to the ground.....
What happened to the Jews during the evil Nazi era was horrific...seriously grievous... never to be forgotten or excused...But I make no distinction between the millions of people who died in the Holocaust and the Mayan civilisations who were wiped out by the Spanish conquistadors, or the aboriginals of Australia, or the Persians who Alexander the Great slaughtered...Or the 4 million Africans who have been killed in the Congo..I am not denigrating the obvious Jewish pain and savage history but I just don’t understand why the Israeli government and Army show a similar lack of basic human respect to the Palestinians as the Nazis did to the jews...........What Carter said is Spot on. Until Israel stops annexing land there will be no peace. The point I’m trying to convey, is that there is Nothing that gives Israel the Right to remain entrenched deep within Palestinian Land, yet the World has stood by and allowed it to continue to this very day, this very hour..Why are so many people blind to the blatant MILITARY OCCUPATION???????..The suicide bombings can never be justified as the people who get blown to pieces are invariably Israeli civilians, NOT the perpetrators of the most heinous crimes committed against Palestinians themselves; the Israeli government and army...
A US army ‘hit and run’ mission near the city of Balad(Iraq) has resulted in accusations of ‘civilian executions’, made by the Iraqi Police Force. The official police report states:
“American forces used helicopters to drop down troops on the house. They gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people, including five children, four women and two men, then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed the animals”. Though there was apparently one Al-Quaeda suspect captured, you gotta wonder about the ethics of killing a whole family just to capture one ‘suspect.’.
Some stats from Iraq:
Insurgent Attacks Per Day:
March 2004= 21
March 2005= 54
March 2006= 75
US soldiers(and marines) killed in action:
February 2005= 54
February 2006= 55
Iraqi troops(working with the US to stabilize Iraq)killed:
February 2005= 103
February 2006= 158
The number of Iraqi civilian killed is also increasing rapidly—
Iraqi civilians killed in February: more than 1000
(All statistics taken from Brookings Institution)
Tony Blair, the ailing UK Prime minister is in hot water over allegations of ‘loans for favours’ made by his own treasury department. All donations made to political parties must be made public, but loans don’t count as donations, as they are a business arrangements. These loans seem to have been given at extremely generous interest rates, and some of the rich bastards who lent the money, have been applying for peerages(official ranks/titles). The others..well they must have been exchanging their cash for some other favour from the Labour party, some other payback to be collected in the future....I don’t think that the British government is amazingly corrupt, not like the Washington set-up, but yes at the same time they aren’t exactly 100% transparent..The end result of this ‘cash for favours’ row should be a new ruling which makes all $$$$ supplied from non-government officials to government officials transparent, trackable and overseen by a appointed body of trusted watchdogs...If not, the British public will grow increasingly wary of Mr Blair. If indeed parliamentary favours can be purchased wonder who decides the prices??I couldn’t guess. Not Blair himself..but maybe Mr Alistair Campbell could spread some light on the true financial accounts of the Labour party.......
Lets move to the animal kingdom. Introducing the sleek, sadistic Ocelot....
Found mainly in South America, The medium sized cat is a solitary creature, generally only engaging in contact with its brethren during mating season, though a male and female ocelot will sometimes share a territory.. Typically agile Hunters; able to swim, climb trees and catch a variety of prey ranging from fish to deers. Unfortunately de-forestation(which causes the loss of their natural habitat) has resulted in depressingly low population figures of these beautiful feline assassins..I agree with the old Egyptian law which punished cat-killers with the death penalty. However, not all historical humans respected cats; An English Pope from the 15th Century decreed that ‘cat fanciers be burned as witches’....I hope that swine got his just desserts by been mauled to pieces by a rogue Blank Panther..
Marine Life ummm... jelly-creature??? of the week...The Giant Squid. More fact than fiction.
This 12 metre giant squid was found dead in Spain earlier this year.
Budgie specialists in England believe that they have distinguished 30,000 words in the avian linguists’ language, which are used in coherent sentences by the talkative winged beasts.. The specialists have been studying the strange squawking of their favourite bird species for a number of years, using a method which slows down the speed of the sound so that it can be cut into segments then analysed for meaning...
Ryan Reynolds is a psittalinguist — (a person who interprets budgie-speak)—and he says:
"This is going to sound crazy, but they talk about spiritual things: God, the afterlife, a better world for them....It(deciphering the squawks) takes a lot of skill and concentration. Budgies have a particular way of pronouncing words. It's like picking up accents.”..For more information check out Reynold’s website http://www.parrotresearch.com which includes an examination of the idea of predictive abilities of parrots.
