living legends

It's now february 2008, and we did a lot of pretty cool things, and a lot of pretty crappy. In the netherlands the overall impression is one of not very informedness,
when something happens the west really likes, eg. bhuto that went to pakistan or bush to israel, there is a great flush of probhutopakistan and to a somewhat more recollected extend,probushisrael, news, but next the whole nation falls back on some utterly obscure case, that is in fact obviously a plea for a more sensationalist aproach to crime.(1)

Meanwhile with our movements of protest being beaten up , institutionalised and splintered the great majority of people hardly have a say about the controversial neo-liberal rightwing offshoots. The effect is evident in society im many ways, ranging from ridiculous, through funny, to paranoia and frustration. Usually not much good because the perpetual repetition of the fascist themes of capitalism has the predictable effect.

Now i just have to talk about al jazeera as it is my primary news source. Al jazeera as an institute of news is far from perfect. It is a very much regarded stream of publicity and the attentions of mediapolicys are strongly present because the concept(alJ) is limited in what it is allowed to represent. Firstly it is bound by many of the usual restrictions on news gathering, wether they are circumstantial or official interference, secondly it is not allowed to function if it disallows abuse of her medium for the official medialine. This can be in topics, expressions used in topics, but also in the sequence of articles or at least, the sequence of expressions used within a topic over time. However it is still more interesting, open and serious then the usual inet media, and through alJ i 'discovered' youtube.
A pleasant way.

K, that said i assume i could give some general impressions on the political states of affairs, and since the year is new, i should say there are some.

Pakistan that focussed to get the worlds attention a month ago, is actually a complicated nation, when you support say bhuto's PPP it does not say so much about if you are a modern person. Likewise when people support sharif don't know his party's name, it does not mean they are ready to allow freedom of expression. There however are many reasons pakistani don't want to support musharaf, who actually seems the most advanced case. He is a militairy person, he has been in charge for a long time, he organises things in a very hard to understand way, he is very lenient to islamists, yet hard when to proof his authority. He is not much of a dictator, then again he is one, Pakistan is a police state, though perhaps not a very bad and political one, the army has to pronounced a place for a 21st century nation, then again Musharaf was not wrong when he decided to use it as the tool of development under all these circumstances. Nobody trusts what he says, because you can trust him to say only as much as he dares. Actually many Pakistanis behave really paranoid towards him, they blame him for everything to such an extend you really rather believe he is innocent, to put it very clearly, similarly that they judge for example the jews, but there is a consensus they want to get rid of him.
Worst of all more radical elements of all partys involved and at least one of the ones not involved, and perhaps foreign interests may all escalate matters. The more important aproach is one where some consensus that is there now , to actually demote musharaf, would not be abused to heat the fire. The people will have a lot of problems to agree with anyhow, the people that think of eg. ppp as better then musharaf, don't much realise that the ppp might not have better answers to the situation (thinks maliki).

Lastly to western normes and eyes, musharaf is a bit of an idiot, his personality is much more pakistani then ours, i would guess he is as pakistani as he thinks is apropriate, he does it for them , not for us. It does not go in pakistan all unnoticed. Plenty people do realise atomic bombs are not so great, and his personal grudge and attack on india have also left bad impressions. Partly because they did not win i assume. The international world wants to get rid of him mostly because of that affair in any case.(2)

My conclusion, i am glad i am not in pakistan, i would feel like a playball of forces greater then the pakistani and i am not so sure i would feel completely safe from musharaf either. Us interference in pakistan is also a scary prospect, ofcourse that if people manage to explode in islamabad now, they will certainly do when the nation is a bloodbath.

so these are my opinions about pakistan. I hope the ppp after the elections will live up to the promises of freedom, and not opt for power through division.
It is smore sensible to involve the army and musharaf in the whole probably, firstly any civil government will be safer and it is the easiest way, secondly untill yet musharafs policys have somewhat kept foreign intervention far. In that sense created room for experiment and dialogue, and both empirically and militairy, as well as relating to the love for pakistan, the best choice.

Next not so good subject. Afrika. Both Kenya and Chad have seen little advance in the last times. It is a good thing when the UN at least cares to provide food to chad after this disaster, that is rather incomprehendible and definitly not quite like the media suggest. The more vague aspect is france's role, however it is equally possible to regard it an usian ploy, some chad/usian/sudanese cooperation,
or just a general sign of absolute unwillingness to settle under ydres debri.
All in all some elements from darfur and surrounding nations would sympathise with such a cause over resources. But chad is a very barren nation, with not enough plants to maintain a moist climate, just like btw kenya's more affected region is not the more green one.

So on to kenya. In Kenya the progress has achieved something. But everybody may feel very scared.., we, the people that fight opression, are very used to conservative forces trying to reverse the opportunity after we agree to negotiate. In kenya people will know this too. Kenyan people overall have not behaved so bad, as both sides have managed to tune in the violence. However the authority's are the more dangerous side when they get time to react. I think that is why odingo does not want to settle without new elections and a more solid confirmation of this change of powers. He does not want to have the balance turn against him or the people without securing a better position to implement the result of the negotiations. Indeed he says it would be better Kibaki stepped back. There is some truth in that it would change quite some governments if rigged elections were not as readily accepted in this world.

oow then there is israel, most complicated nations on the planet, one thing they proof alltogether is they know how to make rockets. I really hope the southern gate will some day be unlocked. It is ridiculous that israel insists on supplying gaza with the mere intend to be able not to deliver. It is a very humiliating and embarrasing situation and as such a source for conflicts throughout the region and outside. When criminals take hostages the traumas read like soap adds. but when the whole gaza population is a hostage for many years nobody really bothers what trauma the people get.

Your views pages on al jazeera. way to many western contributions.
Elections, Obama, more credible base for advance and progression.

Interesting dillema btw, The anti-racial stance, because it would emancipate the most people and the extra discriminated woman? Or the prowoman stance , because it might affect half of us and the rest, and really is one of the most substantial matters of emancipation as well.

Within that , Clinton is obviously very associated with the existing political system and obama represents something more out of the ordinairy, much more emancipated, when you look at what both represent. Usians don't mean to do bad to the world so much, they only move for war after the media/government has endlessly been preaching the crusade, and they really don't realise most of us arrange our internal matters in a somewhat more friendly way. That the world is not so much a hollywood cartoon here. And also not that people can be much poorer then them. Thats why they bomb nations that hardly have anything to the stone age, and boycot people in distress, they have no idea what they are doing in between their media hypes.

As a result of that the tone of the debate, essentially international, wich is after all the most important aspect, can be expected to change in a better way by getting rid of racial prejudices that, it seems to me, affect us to a greater extend in all these mistaken wars and conflicts we set loose. For example a typical european has a prejudice against every lua and every kikuyu. Not much of a help.

It would be a great and deserving show for the us to overstep this.
So many nations have xenophobe outlets, great tasks ahead.

--smokes--

oh yes irak. quit it before everyone has to join the army or 'security'?
No, becus of oil. Sees a stone age perspective in the region...
I don't hope they hop over to iran.

(1)the material this sensationalist approach 'precedent' works with is rather untelling as well, looks to me like a story the 2 cooked up together.
(2)It is though as if india spend more attention to the problem after.