REVOLUTIONS GOOD, BAD, AND UGLY

Democracy is a messy concept and it's a messy reality. In my own time, probably my first proper look at revolution was with what happened seemingly very quietly in Rhodesia in the 70s. School then was in Lusaka, Zambia, a nation that came to be in 1964 at the ailing end of the British Commonwealth 'Empire'. I had friends and schoolmates from Rhodesia. They never invited me to visit, something that was unusual in hospitable Zambia. I'd been to the homes of friends from much farther away, but the Rhodesians respectfully declined. It wasn't till we once almost casually crossed the border (after crossing at Kariba, the  huge dam on the Zambezi river) and came across an inn by the roadside where we decided to stop for a cuppa, and were just entering the drive when dad slammed on the brakes. I looked up and there was a large board that read "whites welcome"  "no entry to coloureds" well that was more than enough for us and we very quickly went back 'home' to Zambia. And, that's when I first started to understand apartheid. It had of course been taught to us in some detail in school, but it isn't untill you come up against the thing itself that the reality starts to sink in. I can't imagine what actually living under this sort of oppression would do to my psyche... Well, of course a revolution was happening at that time, a war of independence was indeed on, and it wasn't very long after that that that regime fell. Zimbabwe was born. Zimbabwe was and is a democratic nation. Unfortunately, it was a nation born of hatred, and the hatred grew and was vented against its own self.  Reverse discrimination became the norm... The rest is recent enough history that you probably are quite familiar with it. Still, it is a democracy isn't it? So, what went wrong?

In between then and now, a newly imperialistic America has decided to dabble in regime change, and they have used 'democracy' or the lack of it, as an excuse to topple those who have fallen into their disfavor. The current US president, who once claimed to be somewhat of a dove, has in practice turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing (do follow the TITLE link to an interesting rundown of the present incumbent's recent track record). For one thing he has vastly increased the use of drones to do remote 'assassinations' and in countries where America is supposedly not even militarily engaged. How long will it take for these drones to get fully operational in places like Egypt and Yemen?

Unfortunately, the virus of democracy is not as easily controlled as is 'terrorism'. Regime's and dictators whom the US considered 'friendly' (however despotic), are now suddenly being ousted, and without US military help. I think the Americans have managed to temporarily stave off a similarly huge Yemeni revolt, but they have been a bit too slow to completely protect Egypt's Mubarak. The outcome in Egypt is still far from certain. In Yemen the crackdown was immediate, and the lack of local news agencies has resulted in a vacuum of silence there. Mubarak did call out the tanks, but the people were aroused, and his police seemed to know they were in for it and had temporarily gone underground. The police are now back though, and backed by gun wielding and truncheoned 'supporters' of Mubarak.

I'm sure that all out efforts are on 'behind the scenes' to somehow bring the cries for freedom (and democracy!) under control - and to prevent the virus from spreading to other nearby dictatorships.  I am also quite sure that El Baradei is a marked man. The actual list of dictators that continue to bask in America's favor is much larger and very informative in its own right. With tacit American approval, there exist many that oversee regimes so repressive that revolution will not come easy. Talk of freedom, or of democracy, or of human rights, in any of these places will end you up in jail without trial, or just as likely, dead. I'm thinking in particular of places like Saudi Arabia, and then too most of the '*istans' of Asia.

Stability is the new key word. A world order that should not be shaken up too much, for fear of...well, democracy. People should be free, but not free to be for example 'too conservatively Islamic' in their outlook. I guess the thinking is that somehow Islamic democracy itself is dangerous, and can only be controlled and 'properly channeled' by friendly, hardline (read 'utterly ruthless') dictators.

Some parts of the world are apparently not yet ready for democracy, after all, democracy can really get quite messy, can't it?

The sign at the top is from South Africa, which was also an apartheid state, but the policy as such actually goes right back to the British colonists though it is commonly thought of as only a legacy of the Dutch settlers.  I clearly remember taking a book out from the Lusaka Public library when I was in high school and seeing a sticker on the inside back cover that detailed the rules for the handling of the book including stuff like "if the book is requested by a black or coloured servant on behalf of a white, the servant has to bring the note in a cleft stick", should be provided with a bag in which the librarian can place the book etc. etc. I guess to absolutely ensure that the book was not soiled by being handled by 'coloured' folks. Zambia was never Dutch and had always been a purely British colony.

Update September 2013 On the Egyptian front things have gone from bad to worse and so too in Syria and in Bahrain. Perhaps, Zimbabwe is now in slightly better shape than it was.

Overall, as of end 2013, there seems little chance that 'the will of the people' is going to make any headway. Internationally, the Russians and Chinese are not averse to a little dictatorship/military rule. The Americans and Brits who have (mostly in theory) promoted 'democracy' first dithered and then openly backed down. The UN, well, Ban's UN has been the joker in the bridge pack (i.e. MIA).

An excerpt from the NYT today is telling:  "On Thursday, with much of the world distracted by Syria, the Egyptian generals and the civilian officials they have appointed extended a countrywide state of emergency for two months ... security forces have also begun to round up other dissenters, a chilling warning that no Egyptians should feel safe if they dare to challenge authority. That was not the kind of country that most Egyptians envisioned during the 2011 revolution when they sought democracy and freedom and demanded jobs and education."

For a rundown of all the recent hot news from these hotspots, check out today's A Righter World!

And now, three years down the line, the democratic counterrevolution has been crushed, the Muslim Brotherhood has been jailed and all prodemocracy voices of dissent silenced. Of course, Egypt remains the USA's staunch ally... see

Egypt’s 1984

OCTOBER 28, 2014 Sharif Abdel Kouddous

Slave or Free? Independence, Dependence & Interdependence

Musing on the self’s necessary embeddedness-in-its-context, Jon Erdman, over at his Theos Project blog, has a fascinating post woven around the quintessential jazz quartets/quintets of the early nineteen sixties, and the experience of fantastic music from the likes of John Coltrane and Miles Davis and their troupes (search out some very choice live concerts on YouTube). On stage, each of the performers is an artiste of rare excellence, yet they meld together so spontaneously and effortlessly in their virtuosity that it is a wonder to behold – and the resulting music is something much more than the sum of its parts – shear magic. So what is this? How does it work? Pure individualism is an important basic component, but isn’t there also the magic of real codependence?

The ‘West’ (perhaps especially America) has lauded the values of freedom and independence as supreme.Western culture now extols these as the purest and most fundamental of human ideals – at least in theory. Western culture gears up to provide each individual with the greatest possible degree of freedom and independence.Economically, what that boils down to is ‘free enterprise’, while politically, the only way to go is pure democracy. Individuals, then, who make up the society, cooperate only by choice, and never of necessity. Of course, we are often left with a lingering suspicion that these 'ideals' may be more of a marketing gimmick than really real...

In the East, while we have been bombarded with these Western values and cultural norms, yet we are still very much ensconced in a completely different milieu. Our culture always covertly calls the shots. Family and societal needs always take precedence over individual likes, desires, goals, and even thought.

Certainly, some sort of a challenge has been thrown down on the part of freedom and independence by the ubiquitous Western oriented media, but how far has it gotten and where do we now stand? Are we Easterners now setting out to become ruggedly independent individuals? Perhaps, in some peoples mind’s, being freedom loving, democratically oriented, and independent, is theoretically possible. Perhaps, there is even an individualistic façade, a persona, trying to creep into our collective consciousness. But, in all key instances, when we dig a little deeper, we do find that it is merely a pretence, if not even a posturing, and one that is evident only on the surface.

Out in the world, our youth may appear to be momentarily confused about the possibilities of individuality and selfhood, but on arrival at home from high school or college, the dream quietly fades away. Culture and family are all that surrounds one, effortlessly sucking you in, and you are once again comfortably enveloped in that familiar territory of duty and belonging. Oneness of mind is not at all a matter of choice, it is the unquestioned necessity for survival and the ground of every one’s very identity.

Whatever be the future of our culture wars, in one small way democracy does threaten to drive a tiny wedge into our so far impregnable melding pot. Exercising one’s vote is a uniquely private event. However much discussion on politics, or the nation’s needs, may precede, the casting of that one vote is sacrosanct; it will not be intruded upon. Few are the opportunities to be a real individual in Eastern societies, but here in India, the vote is the one unique thing that DEMANDS your independence and underscores your constitutionally guaranteed freedom.

Don’t throw it away by failing to exercise your franchise.

In this coming election, and whenever again the opportunity arises - PLEASE VOTE!!!

Update Burma - Bloody Stones

Quoting from the Christian Science Monitor : "The government's Myanmar Gem Enterprise – Burma's third largest export company after the state-run oil and timber companies – has said gem sales have increased by 45 percent every year for the past three. The gem auctions, held once or twice a year since 1964, are becoming more frequent. All told, the official trade in Burma's gems, according HRW, was valued at $297 million in fiscal year 2006-2007, but is estimated to actually be much higher when factoring in unofficial sales. " (title links to full 3 page article)

The triumphant announcement of the growing success of the Rangon gem auctions comes after our morally bankrupt "world leaders" called for a boycott on Myanmarese gems.

Most of the mines are government owned, with large shares going to individual memebers of the military Junta. The mines supply a world hungry for jade, rubies, diamonds, cat's- eyes, emeralds, topaz, pearls, sapphires, coral, and yellow garnet. Remember that about 80% of the world's gem quality rubies come from Burma/Myanmar!

A further horror is that in typical fashion, all the mines have been confiscated from local communities these same communities are now 'employed' there as forced labor - mostly women and children.

Interestingly, gem exploitation ranks only third in Burma's export earnings. Oil and TIMBER take the lead (no boycott has been called against Burmese timber or oil!). Incidentally, while India earns quite a bit from Burmese gems, the main interest is in black gold (oil)...

In all three spheres, China studiously ignores all calls for international boycotts and is closely followed (though much more obliquely) by India.

While some of the world’s gem trading MNC giants have officially supported the ban, many are also busy exploiting ‘the letter of the law’ and hiding the origins of their gemstones by rerouting the raw Burmese gems to other countries such as India and Sri Lanka in order to muddy the original source. In India, gem traders gleefully line their pockets with the bloody spoils of value addition as they polish and facet the gems to be exported as India’s own (it’s an 800 billion rupee industry with India processing between 75% and 80% of the all of the world’s gem stones).
What a shame that the world’s largest democracy and supposed champion of human rights would quietly allow their traders to deal with a monster state that makes its money while bleeding a fellow democracy to death.

Kenya - Meddle and Muddle

Under British colonialism, the world learned how to divide and conquer. Now, with the American hegemony at hand, that has been replaced by a 'policy' of meddling and muddling. The resulting confusion is very destructive to nations and economies. Kicking off the 21st century, Iraq stands as the sentinel example . Pakistan, with Mushy (the U.S. backed dictator) now creating an unholy antidemocratic mess, is another case in point.

Kenya is an unlikely place to suspect an American hand but the signs have been there for quite some time now. Mwai Kibaki, the previous president, is a typical example of one who seems well intentioned, urbane, well educated, soft spoken, and yet is firmly in the U.S.'s back pocket. The secret is money, though that's hardly a great secret, is it?

Unfortunately for the U.S., even the Kenyan government's official map that purports to explain the strange result of Kibaki's 'win' shows, to anyone who knows how tribes and populations are actually distributed in Kenya that the 'official result' is a farce.

Bush, in the face of an obviously rigged election, wants power to be shared in Kenya. Shared? Did he offer to share his presidency when John Kerry won the popular vote in his own questionable 'win' in his own 'democratic' country? In other words, by whatever means, Mwai should retain the semblance of power, for Raila Odinga is an unknown quantity and looks (from what we can tell of his public persona) to be much less likely to slip quietly into the CIA's silky hands.

Kofi Annan's attempts to help sort things out in Kenya must have really alarmed the Bush administration. Kofi has been a quiet but powerful force in opposition to the American attempts at hegemony. That fight almost destroyed the U.N. itself as the U.S. used its money power to choke the U.N. into submission. Rice is now sent to butt herself in to the delicate situation in Kenya to see to it that Mwai doesn't cave in. The fact that then thousands more may die in the face of a ham-handed attempt to subvert real live democracy, is immaterial.

Also immaterial, it seems, is the fact that perhaps for the very first time in Africa, a country has voted without regards to tribal allegiance. That is the only way for Odinga, a non-Kikuyu to have popularly and decisively ousted Mwai who is a Kikuyu. Kikuyus themselves, and a lot of them too, voted for someone from another tribe - unheard of in Africa, till a couple months ago!

Kenya is a land of vast potential. It has excellent agricultural prospects, good water, regular rains and has a wide range of habitats. The people are intelligent, relatively well educated, hard working, honest, sincere, friendly and very politically active.

Let's not do things the Cheney-me-to-a-Rice Bush way just this once. Enough of this meddling and muddling! Let's give Kenya a chance.

In the meantime, as Kenyans struggle for their independence and their right to decide their own future, let them know that there are many around the world praying for their success and peace and progress.

For the land of my birth, right now though, I am much reminded of the title of a book by a South African writer, Alan Paton:

CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY

War Games - Musharraf goes the "Cheney me to a Rice Bush" Route

India has been toying with doing things in 'The New American Way' for some time now. Our present almost misadventures with the 1-2-3 Nuclear Power Treaty have clearly indicated our own Junta's leanings. We too seem to be actively seeking ways to democratically subvert our democracy, but thankfully have so far failed.

Still the Dickied Rice Bush has had some measure of success with our neighbour Pakistan.

America kept insisting that this Mushy stuff was the closest that the Pakistani people could get to democracy. Instead, what was all along a dictatorship in democratic guise has now reverted to form and proved that it was indeed a full blown military dictatorship all along.

Musharraf is a suave, smooth, polite, educated, and eminently reasonable dictator, but a dictator and a ruthless and brutal one nonetheless. He is photogenic and charismatic (wonder where I've heard that before) and an ideal stooge for the U.S. State Department's deeper Neocononial designs in this part of the world.
The last time Musharraf needed to consolidate his power he engineered a war (the '99 Kargil War) with India. The then democratically elected Pak. leader (Nawaz Sharrif) had to flee for his life.

This time Mushy has been concentrating on his Afghany front, and let's hope that he stays focussed there. The chances are that as long as the current U.S. administration is wooing India, Mushy will have to bite his tongue and wait, but nothing is certain in todays global village.

Who knows, perhaps in international parlance this is just one more way of delivering a hidden ultimatum? An openly militaristic Pakistan should certainly fuel the the local arms race and that itself would have made Dickey & Co. very happy. Every cloud should have a silver and gold lining, as should every pocket...

It's too much to hope that India would have learned anything substantial from this, except that there're always ways to make a quick buck. The depth of the pocket is actually what drives politics in India anyway.

Statesmanship is a thing of the rather distant past - a blurry, fading, black and white memory of what was always something of a hazy backlit dream.

"Do, you know that the U.S. tried ever so strongly to dissuade Mushy from such a drastic step?" At least that's the current spin, being disseminated through the hidden alleyways of a 'leaky' State Department.

Everyone does know that Musharraf would never have dared unless he was offered tacit U.S. support.

• We have blown it on Myanmar. We are supporting a brutal military junta.
• We have blown it with Tibet. We have shamed the Dalai Lama.

It is not too late to change tack.

Let us try to realise the reality of our own proud constitution.
Let us once more try to stand for FREEDOM,
to truly uphold DEMOCRACY, and
to be the champions of JUSTICE
that we once thought that we could be,
and that we would be.


UPDATE 1 (Nov. 5) The headlines about 6 months down the road after a bit of NYT investigative journalism:

RENDERING (justice to) THE COURTS:

Gen. Pervez Mussharaf had exported Pakistan's supreme court justices to the U.S. under the Democracy re-education program sponsored by the US Department of State. Now we are pleased to report that waterboarding and other assorted recreationally educational nontortures at Guantanamo for the recalcitrant Pakistani Supreme Court justices has finally resulted in signed confessions of connections to terrorism from all the judges who had originally refused to swear allegiance to General Musharraf after he imposed martial law in order to save Pakistani democracy. They unanimously support the continuation of Mr. Mussharaf as he is clearly now 'the only dictator capable of restoring true democracy.' The Secretary of State is very pleased that the U.S. has been able to further promote democracy in the world."

Myanmar - India supports the Junta's Freedom to Loot

The world has already expressed its disgust at the criminal actions of the military Junta in Myanmar. There are just two things that I would like to stress:

India's voice has been silent. Why? What is the vested interest that shuts our mouth, or is it that our government actually secretly approves of the actions of the "Generals"?

As an immediate neighbor to Myanmar, one would think that we would be the first to express our dismay, but nowadays many 'immediate neighbors' are complicit by their silence; take South Africa and Zambia for example, and how they have chosen to 'deal' with Zimbabwe. India is proving to be a similarly adept tightrope walker.

Our Indian Junta does not believe in principles any more. The shock of the interim success of the religiously fundamentalist BJP seems to have stripped all of the remaining ideals from todays so-called leadership. The long-term game is to remain in power and in order to do that they feel the need for support and encouragement from other morally bankrupt (but rich) democratic allies. One can see that a certain world power is counting on inciting India to act as a bulwark against the ultimate ascendancy of the growing economic might of China. That particular power in turn unhesitatingly subverts the remaining principles of their chosen allies by the simple expedient of financing whomsoever will 'toe its line'.

Western talk of promoting democracy has proved to be cheap. Belief in the benefits of true democracy have altogether disappeared. The result is seen here as India had backed away from doing anything about Tibet, and then 'on request' did the dirty to our long-time allies the Iranians, so too now will we sell the Myanmarese peoples to the highest bidder.

Both India and Burma (Myanmar) are ex-colonies of Great Britain! The British understood globalisation, and Realpolitik long before anyone else. They had to to be able to maintain a dominance, an empire for over two whole centuries, on which the sun never did set! At the same time the Brits have been busy writing histories of how selflessly they used their empire to educate and develop an uncivilised world. Our Indian leaders have learned too well at the feet of their former masters.

The unholy alliance of a China along with a subverted democracy, both joining in in the shenanigans of the key MNCs ensures the continuance of the military regime in Myanmar. This is my second point. The survival of the military junta is because they are tremendously rich. These riches fund the control of the army that then backs up completely the Junta's undemocratic hegemony.

The money in the case of Myanmar, comes mainly from timber, oil, gas, opium, and mining. All of the timber, oil, and mineral wealth is harvested from the vast pristine tropical wilderness by multinational corporations (MNCs) whose activity is known and approved of by the nations that host and spawn these Money alone is God behemoths. The facts are not even denied; it is called progress, development and globalisation. Shamelessly such MNCs continue to operate without any controls, raping the lands and forests and simultaneously doing all in their power to ensure the continuance and enrichment of the 'oh so cooperative' golden-egg-laying-gooses of a Junta. The nations that spawn such monstrosities as these MNCs are the very ones that also piously speak of promoting democracy!

"The majority of investment in oil and gas was made by multinational companies from France, United States and United Kingdom in entering joint venture projects with the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE)"

India and China in different ways are great supporters of today's Myanmar, and even rivals for influence there, though there is little question that China's economic influence does dominate.. India has its stake more as the key cutout and staging point for any MNC that wants to get round the 'minor sanctions' and the 'muted murmurs of disapproval' that are occasionally felt from Europe and America.

Myanmar is one nation where there is no need for any mafia. The looting and environmental destruction are legal! But MNCs prefer the anonymity of JVs and offshoring their activities through 'friendlies' like India.

It is also a little-recognised fact that the vast British empire was built on wood from Africa and Asia. In all former colonies one will find that some of the oldest surviving government departments are the FDs (Forest Departments) and that the systematic rape of third world forests was almost the first thing that the colonial British actually did to their colonies. While wood is still a very major money spinner, the future clearly lies in the oil and gas reserves. India and China in their unholy partnerships with the MNCs have their eyes and policies firmly fixed on all that gas and quite some oil reserves too.

• India's double standards and their hidden activity as proxies to 'higher' powers needs to be recognised and CONDEMNED.
  
• The MNCs that are actually doing the damage but who have remained faceless need to be NAMED and SHAMED.

We Indians have been witness to the insidious but definite shift in our own nation's foreign policies as it increasingly leans towards outright doing whatever the richest of nations want. The Indian activity is mediated (dare we suspect 'funded'?) by these same nations and their MNCs i.e. the very ones who are consistently exploiting Myanmar (and wherever else the opportunity to act without any controls makes the process maximally profitable). It is a sad truth that both of our leading political parties have already been 'converted' into backboneless and unprincipled supporters of "that which should not be named". While that pristine state in public speaks loudly of championing democracy, at the same time the word to the MNCs boardrooms is to quietly get on with getting the loot.

I am not at this moment much concerned about the sins of the rest of the world.
It is India's shameless tactics that have confounded me.

Folks, it's time to make a change!
Let's stand up for what's right, for a change...
India needs to get its act together NOW.

Pray for the peoples of Myanmar.