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Early evening usually passes in our house with thirty minutes of BBC World News, recorded via PBS at 5.00pm, immediately followed by the NBC Nightly News at 5.30pm. The comparisons are occasionally laughable, often frustrating, frequently infuriating.

Friday evening was a prime example of the latter. The BBC led with a long, shocking, and detailed report from Chad, on the condition of the Darfur refugees, fleeing both from their own government forces and the despicable Arab Janjaweed militia, who have mercilessly raped, tortured and killed thousands of innocent Sudanese civilians over the last four years.

Seeking sanctuary across the border in neighboring Chad brought an all-to-brief respite, for the Janjaweed have followed and found them again.

The talk now is of genocide; another Rwanda in the making. While Western politicians splutter with indignation, but back away from upsetting the oil-rich Sudanese criminals running the government, there is no-one to protect these people from the ravages of the Janjaweed scum.

BBC reporter Orla Guerin, in eastern Chad, interviewed a young man who barely escaped with his life after being tortured by the militias. Before they left him, they stuck daggers into both his eyes – piercing his eyeballs. He is now totally blind.

It is obvious that no-one will do anything to stop the bloodletting in Africa. The UN is helpless unless western nations back it by providing armed forces prepared to take on both Janjaweed and Sudanese government forces.

It won’t happen because public opinion in the West is not pushing for action. So far as many Americans are concerned, Darfur is no longer a problem. Why? Because the American media has washed its hands of Darfur. It doesn’t feature on nightly news broadcasts anymore.

Immediately after viewing this report on the BBC, I switched to the NBC Nightly News as it briefly headlined with Bush and Iraq, before spending the latter half of its preciously short news time “Trading Places”, a nightly segment regaling Americans with how well NBC employees care for their aging relatives. As always, the last segment was “Making a Difference”, a regular slot attempting to promote the American “feel good factor” by spotlighting some minor nobody knitting blankets for the troops, or baking cookies for the “war effort”.

It’s not often Sparrow Chat stoops to blasphemy, but –

“Jesus Christ! What the Hell is going on here?”

Two hundred thousand have died in Darfur, and two and half million have been displaced; hundreds are dying every day in Iraq, and two million have been displaced. Meanwhile, Brian “Mister Complacency” Williams is regaling us with tales of how well he looks after his Daddy!

Do Americans really think they are good people because they bake cookies or knit blankets? They’re about as warm-hearted as the audience sitting in on the guillotining of the aristocrats at the French revolution!

According to history – they knitted, as well!

More on the crisis in Chad, including part of Orla Guerin’s report, can be found HERE.

Filed under: Bad news

One of many unanswered questions concerning the Bush administration and its connections to the now almost infamous, Project for the New American Century, has been why Paul Wolfowitz – one of the PNAC’s greatest advocates – suddenly took himself off to head the World Bank.

At first glance, it seemed something of a backwater for this Straussian student who was once described in the Economist, not just as a hawk, but a velociraptor. Why would Wolfowitz bury himself away in such a job when he had no financial qualifications, but bachelor degrees in mathematics and chemistry, and a doctorate in political sciences?

The reason may now be more apparent.

First and foremost, Wolfowitz is a Jew, and a Zionist like his father. He spent time in Israel as a young man; his sister lives there permanently. It’s not surprising then that his sympathies lie more with Israel, than with Palestine.

What is somewhat surprising – shocking, even – is an article tucked away in the archives of a website called “Project Censored” – subheaded, “The News That Didn’t Make The News”.

Should we take note of this particular news source? Walter Kronkite thinks so. He says:

“Project censored is one of the organizations we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcasting outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism.”

The article in question describes how, since Wolfowitz joined the World Bank in June 2005, money earmarked for Palestinian assistance is being used to fund parts of the Israeli “barrier”, in particular the costs of erecting huge security gates in the wall to allow controlled access of Palestinians. This is in breach of an International Court of Justice ruling that the “barrier” is illegal.

A framework is already in place for a Palestinian Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA) which, according to a World Bank report:

“In an improved operating environment, Palestinian entrepreneurs and foreign investors will look for well-serviced industrial land and supporting infrastructure. They will also seek a regulatory regime with a minimum of ‘red tape’ and with clear procedures for conducting business. Industrial Estates (IEs), particularly those on the border between Palestinian and Israeli territory, can fulfill this need and thereby play an important role in supporting export based growth.”

Sounds good for the Palestinians, doesn’t it, until one realizes that these “Industrial Estates” are to be controlled by the Israelis:

“Built on Palestinian land around the Wall, these industrial zones are envisaged as forming the basis of export-orientated economic development. Palestinians imprisoned by the Wall and dispossessed of land can be put to work for low wages. The post-Wall MEFTA vision includes complete control over Palestinian movement. The report proposes high-tech military gates and checkpoints along the Wall, through which Palestinians and exports can be conveniently transported and controlled. A supplemental “transfer system” of walled roads and tunnels will allow Palestinian workers to be funneled to their jobs, while being simultaneously denied access to their land. Sweatshops will be one of very few possibilities of earning a living for Palestinians confined to disparate ghettos throughout the West Bank.” [Source: Jamal Juma – “Cementing Israeli Apartheid: The Role of World Bank”]

Former World Bank president James Wolfensohn rejected out of hand any suggestion that the World Bank become involved in the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. It seems one of the first things Paul Wolfowitz did on replacing him, was to reverse that decision.

The idea of a free trade area within the Middle East has been on US agendas for sometime. The whole thrust of the PNAC is about opening up the Middle East – and eventually other parts of the world – to American markets.

An invasion of US business.

First, of course, had to come the military invasion, to persuade those Middle Eastern governments with reservations about a “Middle East Free Trade Area”, that it was a good idea. Unfortunately, the military plans have stalled in Iraq. According to US Central Command documents from August 2002, just procured by the National Security Archive, it was anticipated that only 5,000 US troops would remain in Iraq by 2006 and Iraq would be “stable, pro-US and democratic” by that time. According to NSA officials, the plans were based on “delusional assumptions”.

Nevertheless, increased US administration rhetoric devised to pump-up the American psyche in readiness for an attack on Iran – to “liberate” it’s people from an oppressive regime – shows that the PNAC hope to resurrect their takeover of the Middle East before what may prove to be another disastrous election for the far right in 2008.

Whoever takes control of the White House in two years will have no effect on the plight of the Palestinians. Whether Democrat or Republican, the Jewish contingency in Congress will ensure the best interests of Israel will top the administration’s agenda.

It is difficult to see any hope for the future that is not tainted by continued war and aggression, as US political and corporate interests dig footholds into other nations, using bombs and tanks to blast their way. Is Israel’s contribution to this master plan to be a nuclear attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities? There can be little doubt the US and Israel are closely allied in this “Project for the New American Century”. Its success would be enormously advantageous to both.

But, oh…..at what a price!

Read the full analysis, “The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall” Here.

Filed under: Great unpunished crimes

What were your thoughts back in 2003 when Natalie Maines stood on the stage of the Shepherds Bush Empire in London and told the audience, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”?

Last week the Dixie Chicks carried off five Grammy awards, a sure indication that America – whatever its feelings following that night back in 2003 – has forgiven this all-girl country and western band for its anti-war, unpatriotic comments to a foreign audience.

That’s hardly the end of the matter, though – is it?

Let’s be bluntly honest. While 75% of Americans now consider George W Bush wrong to invade Iraq, that figure was much, much lower in 2003. I wonder just how many of you reading this can truthfully – with hand on heart – state you were completely and utterly against such action at the time Natalie Maines broadcast her feelings to the world?

Remember the first night of the conflict? The “shock and awe” pictures on CNN? Wasn’t it truly a moment to flutter the heartstrings as your country swung its military might into action against a defiant dictator?

Perhaps that was truly not the case for you – but it was for the vast majority of American citizens glued to their TV’s throughout those weeks when US troops advanced on Baghdad, and a victorious president landed on the flightdeck of the “Abraham Lincoln” and announced, “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”.

Had that indeed been the end of conflict in Iraq George W Bush may well have been vaunted as the greatest American president ever. America, beguiled by its love affair with violence; it’s desire for military victories, coupled with the satisfaction of proving itself the greatest nation on earth, builds heroes as easily as it manufactures enemies. The American people will follow a victor as surely as the Roman patriarchs lauded Julius Caesar. Defeat, or even the stalemate of Iraq, will just as easily condemn that leader forever.

It’s no way to live though, is it?

Those assuaging your lust for blood and victory are human beings just the same as you. Husbands, wives, children, all slaughtered needlessly to maintain the viewing figures on CNN. And you supported it. At least, most of you did. Was it any different, knowing real people were dying as you watched? Or, does Hollywood actually produce more realism – a bit more blood and gore, perhaps?

Of course, CNN still has much to learn from Hollywood. Next time it will do better. Maybe, if we had a war a week, they could put Hollywood out of business altogether.

Or is that expecting too much, even of the American people?

It didn’t have to happen. You could have said “No”. If enough of you had stood up and said “No”, George W Bush could not have invaded Iraq. But you didn’t. Instead, you sat in your comfortable air-conditioned homes with your Budweisers and your big flat-screen TV’s – and you watched CNN.

You watched people die.

In May 2006, Natalie Maines of the all-girl country and western band, Dixie Chicks, told an interviewer:

“”The entire country may disagree with me, but I don’t understand the necessity for patriotism. About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country… I don’t see why people care about patriotism.”

The whole country certainly does not agree with her. But I do.

The American people sat back in their comfortable air-conditioned homes with their Budweisers and their big flat-screen TV’s, and did nothing to stop their democratically elected leaders slaughtering innocents for their pleasure.

And you know what?

If it happened all over again, they’d do exactly the same thing. That’s the price of being the greatest nation on earth with its comfortable air-conditioned houses, Budweisers, and big flat screen TV’s.

It’s called apathy.

Filed under: Not my fault