It was JFK who said that “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” Our thoughts are with Gaza, where GWB’s recent visit to the region has seen Israel only ratchet up its violence and airstrikes upon a territory from which it only nominally withdrew and in fact continues to choke, killing dozens of people in the space of a few days.

Let us recall that after maintaining a ceasefire or hudna for eighteen months, the democratically elected government of Hamas was subject to nothing but economic siege, divide and rule, sabotage and targeted killings. Let us also recall that Israel rejected the offer of a truce, instead continuing its collective punishment of a whole population already brutally repressed and assassinating leaders and civilians alike, including the son of Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar.

The criminal strangulation of a whole population of a million and a half people in one of the most densely populated places on the planet is being committed on the pretext of rocket attacks on Israel using primitive weapons like Qassams; with pretext being the operative word. As Uri Avnery recently observed in Help! A Ceasefire: “If the Qassams were really bothering our political and military leaders, they would have jumped at the cease-fire offer. But the leaders don’t really care … [it] has an important positive side: it provides an ideal pretext for the actions of the army. The Israeli strategic aim in Gaza is not to put an end to the Qassams. It would still be the same if not a single Qassam fell on Israel.” Israel’s policy is to deliberately destroy Gaza. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Jolly Roger & Friends at the excellent Reconstitution for choosing this blog among their nominations for the Thoughtful Blogger Awards (see From Thinking to Thoughtful).

Its always nice to get peer recognition, particularly from a blogger whom you respect and regularly read, so I am honoured.

Jolly has been nominated for a Thinking Blog seven times, an indication of the esteem in which Reconstitution is held. He in turn nominated this blog for one of those, and many other great blogs I was delighted to discover. (Here’s my post on the Thinking Blogger Award; I’ll reserve my selections for this Thoughtful Award for a forthcoming post when I am afforded some more time).

The Thoughtful Award is for the following:

For those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs. For the people who take others feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous. Also for all of those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping others bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.

I’m chuffed! Jolly very graciously (methinks he’s being very modest too) writes:

Reclaiming Space also deserves this award. Ann is very, very in depth, and she will patiently break it down for you if (like me) you don’t quite absorb it on the first go-round.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friends, you may have noticed the frequency of posts is now every few days (rather than a few per day!) and this will likely continue to be so for the next few months due to work and other commitments. After comically declaring in the past that I’d have to go into blog hibernation only to come back to continue posting, I think this is a nice compromise.

NEW FEATURES

I’ve added a languages feature on the left-hand sidebar — while it is only an auto-translator with all the limitations that implies, I hope it may come in handy for speakers of other languages. A dear friend and work colleague tested it out with me today in Russian and Spanish. The syntax worked fine in Russian, and he was reading and translating it back to me perfectly to my pleasant surprise. The Spanish auto-translation seemed fine inasmuch as my friend could read through it, though the translation for the word ‘Qu’ran’ was memorably mixed up as I think I misplaced the apostrophe– it had interpreted it as Qu’ran — translating the ‘ran’ as a separate word. Let me know what y’all think if you speak a language other than English.

Another new feature is my continued experiment with featured article links. I have tried a Press Picks page in the past, but it was rather high maintenance—the social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Newsvine, Reddit et. al. do the same thing and also have feeds. Since the Delicious feed seems to work best with WordPress, I’ve chosen it to stream my selected article links on the right-hand sidebar, under the heading PG Picks. It is regularly added to and updated regardless of blog posts, so do feel free to check out whatever catches your eye.

In addition to this, I’ve added some selected RSS site feeds (eg Electronic Intifada) which features links to that particular site’s most recent articles, also on the right-hand sidebar.

I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly thank everyone who has written to me with article finds and helpful suggestions. I really have been warmed by the correspondence and by the solidarity, generosity of spirit and excellent feedback and the wonderful friends around the globe I have been fortunate to meet. Thank you, and here’s to more (just less frequent posts!) ;)

The satirical culture-jammers The Yes Men interviewed on Bill Moyers Journal (20 July 2007). I don’t know how they can keep a straight face in their hilarious impersonation escapades (probably because what they parody—neoliberal globalisation— is its own caricature!) but their work is much appreciated, especially as the humour actually works to bring truths to the fore. See also Homey’s recent profile on these funny tricksters.

Part One (9.40)

Part Two (8.30)

Some time-pressed recent links I found of interest rather than write-up(s) as I take some time out.

Like many people, I have experimented with social bookmarking sites (Reddit, Newsvine, Clipmarks, Delicious, Digg etc) that are very useful in collecting and organising your bookmarked links, though they do seem to be predicated upon the links being permanently live — if you also use primary news sources such as press agencies (Reuters, AP), you’ll know that often valuable articles are not archived and URL links lapse.

So a year ago, I started up a group-list, commonly used for notification and/ or as fora for discussion, simply for the purposes of archiving articles. The articles are all full-text contemporary political pieces I find valuable and/or interesting and send to the list where they can be archived and accessed anytime, anywhere, by members. My fellow members are free to add to and access articles in this shared archive. I’m going to open it up for subscription for a short time for those who may be interested in the types of issues Peoples Geography covers. As it can be a high volume list, I encourage people to choose the Daily Digest or No Email option which I myself choose (lets you access all articles online rather than receiving them individually by email online). Click here if you happen to be interested in joining.

Australia

Two issues have marked media coverage: Defence Minister Brendan Nelson’s admission that the war on Iraq was, in part, about oil, and the federal government’s heavy-handed approach sending in the military to remote indigenous communities using child protection as a justification.

• ABC News (Australia), Iraq deployment linked to oil: Nelson, 5 July
• Adrian Newstead, Paternalism, Petrol and Paedophilia, HomePage Daily, nd
• Dave on Fire, Apartheid Down Under - Welfare, Not Warfare, 26 June
• Peter Robson, Indigenous communities reject Howard’s racist hypocrisy, GLW, 29 June
• The Orstrahyun, Howard Hits Iraq Oil Slick As Truth Becomes A WMD/ Murdoch’s Media Rewrites Stories After Furious Calls From Prime Minister’s Office, 7 July
• James Sturcke, Oil a factor in Iraq conflict, says Australian defence minister, Guardian, 5 July

Economy

• Monte Asbury, (On Kiva): I helped Grace’s business!, 4th July
• Catherine Austin Fitts, The American Tapeworm (Overcoming Tapeworm Economics)
• Mike Whitney, Another Great Depression?: The Fed’s Role in the Bear Stearns Hedge Funds Meltdown, Global Research, 1 July

Iran

• Al Alam, Iran, Iraq to Build Joint Power Plant
• IRIN, Iran, Venezuela to establish joint oil company, Payvand, 3 July

Iraq

• Pepe Escobar, Iraq, the new Israel, Asia Times, 6 July
• 24 Steps to Liberty, “Soft Partition” of Iraq!, 7 July
• David Bacon, Iraqi Oil: A Benchmark or a Giveaway? Why Iraqi oil workers oppose the much-vaunted oil law, The American Prospect, 6 July
• Sarah Baxter, Powell tried to talk Bush out of war, Sunday Times, 8 July:
  THE former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today’s conflict cannot be resolved by US forces.

Read the rest of this entry »

Another valuable and urgent piece on Somalia with thanks to Amina Mire for sending it. She writes about the underexamined role of China’s scramble for Africa’s natural resources, in addition to African Union (AU) troops in Somalia serving as a mercenary army in service to foreign forces determined to “gain ownership over Somalia’s unexplored natural resources and install a puppet US friendly regime”.

“A Prayer of Shame:” In Somalia, It’s The Blood Money, Stupid!

Africa’s Leaders Are Shoulder to Shoulder and Hips on Hands with Meles Zinawi..1 Read the rest of this entry »

Busy painting and moving furniture this weekend so time affords me only pointing to these good recent reads, excerpted here but well worth reading in full. Interestingly, both the first two articles compare the instability in the region with Europe in 1914, and point to lessons and opportunities Israel has missed.

• Alastair Crooke, Our Second Biggest Mistake in the Middle East, London Review of Books (Vol. 29 No. 13, 5 July 2007)

EXCERPT: When all parties begin to see conflict as inevitable, then the ‘inevitable’ becomes self-fulfilling. Americans are fond of comparing the situation in the region to the 1930s and the rise of totalitarianism; but perhaps Europe in 1914 is a better metaphor: the situation is such that some small, unexpected autonomous event might trigger a sequence of events that even the great powers of the region could find it beyond their ability to control. In the past, after all, a car accident (in the case of the first intifada) and a cinema fire (triggering the Iranian revolution) have unleashed consequences that no one could have foreseen.

• Patrick Seale, Israel Seems Determined to Dig its own Grave, Al-Hayat (22 June 2007)

What would it take to persuade Israel to rethink its attitude towards its Arab neighbours - and primarily towards the Palestinians? The Hamas victory in Gaza is surely a clear signal that an Israeli change of direction is urgently needed.

All Israel’s efforts to break the democratically-elected Hamas government have failed. Its policies of boycott, siege and starvation, of bombing and shelling, of extra-judicial murder, of withholding tax revenues, of the systematic destruction of Palestinian institutions have served only to create a time-bomb of hunger, despair and defiance on Israel’s flank.

Yet Israel appears to have learned nothing. Instead of seeking peace with the Arabs - instead of seizing their outstretched hand - it persists in rejecting all peace overtures, preferring to rely on force and still more force, and on its ability to manipulate its American ally. READ THE REST HERE

and a ray of hope in the act of conscience of an orthodox American Jew, donating money towards rebuilding Palestinian and Bedouin homes destroyed by the apartheid state:

• Tovah Lazaroff, American Jew finances anti-demolition campaign, J-Post (12 June 2007)

An Orthodox American Jew has donated $1.5 million to fund a campaign against the demolition of Palestinian and Beduin homes throughout Israel and the territories, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions announced on Monday.

The committee plans to use those funds to rebuild as many as 300 Palestinians homes it expects to be demolished this year either by the Interior Ministry, the Jerusalem Municipality or the Civil Administration.

UPDATED (in ochre)
Thanks to everyone for their expressions of support regarding the pitiful smear by the Arab-hate blog Sigmund Carl and Alfred — or “Siggy” as he wants to be known (see sigmundcarlandalfred DOT wordpress.com). I am bemused by Sigmund Carl and Alfred’s continued obsession with me and this blog, and after endeavouring to engage with him civilly and comprehensively with facts, I will be ignoring his easily dismissible rants from this point. This constitutes my final response that follows on from these first two posts that already deal with his slanderous claims:

Part I: Conversations with bigotry: on Israel, Islam and Ideologues

Part II: Israeli funding for Hamas plus: note to “Sigmund, Carl and Alfred”

The following is from the comments section of my post Exporting Apartheid: Israel’s war turned into a brand. All relevant link sources to his blog are embedded there for reference; I have removed the links in this particular post and will refrain from linking to his site again upon some good advice.

If you’d like to read the original comments at ‘The Israeli Beast’ (SC&A’s title) post, they’re here in full in word and .pdf.

What the above makes clear is that Sigmund Carl and Alfred argues in circles, repetitively flogging points already addressed. The fact that I’ve addressed them directly doesn’t stop Sigmund Carl and Alfred from desperately repeating them ad nauseum (such as the spurious three preconditions furphy which Israel does not itself meet and must be mutual) and then dishonestly claiming that these claims were ignored.

And no, Sigmund, putting words in people’s mouths is no substitute for an argument. Neither Larisa at AtLargely.com nor I call for the abhorrent extermination of thousands of Jews. This is so clearly absurd and disingenuous that it just shows up Sigmund Carl and Alfred’s desperation.

Yet it is clear that Sigmund Carl and Alfred is comfortable with the hate and wholesale killing of Arabs, whom he repeatedly and openly state he does not consider to be the moral equal of Jews. You are the racist here, Sigmund-Carl-and-Alfred, not Larisa or I. It is also clear that it is he, not Larisa and I, is the one who is “upset”.

Sigmund Carl and Alfred is obsessed with (and repeats ad nauseum) a few rare and episodic slurs about Jews as sons of pigs and monkeys as if they are somehow representative of the diverse Arab world that treated the Jews in its midst far better than Europe did. Yet strangely it is he who is repeatedly calling others “pigs”, “cows”, “monkeys”, “apes” and “bestial”, the very accusation he levels at the Arab world. The hypocrisy and racism is legion. And of course Sigmund Carl and Alfred willfully ignores widespread Israeli racism, amply documented and references provided.

In any case, as a blog friend writes, “I’m proud to be called names. It means people can’t find fault with my logic”.

***

As promised, here’s my response to your claims, Sigmund (and you are one person though you say ‘we’). As your web bio blurb states:

Sigmund Carl and Alfred isn’t really three people; he’s just one, “Siggy” for short. He earns his living as a political analyst specializing in anticipating the behavior of what he refers to as “really crazy people.”

And those really crazy people, in your estimation, includes a stated hatred of and for the Left, Arabs and Muslims. Despite your slander, I’ve endeavoured to once again address your multi-post smear civilly. For someone who is fond of talking about civilised values, your responses are altogether lacking in a modicum of good manners — one should think it is your mother that needs to be spoken to! (see SC&A blog byline)

More substantively, in reading your multiple posts about this blog and blogger, I am bemused at a number of things.

The first is the number of posts I merit. Despite decrying my views as inconsequential, I am apparently important enough to warrant several posts.

Second, I am not the only furious fixation — anyone who is deemed left or liberal earns your ire. I happen not be a liberal in the US understanding of what that means, and I feature right of centre voices regularly, such as Andrew Bacevich, Patrick Buchanan, Ron Paul and Chalmers Johnson. The same can not be said of you featuring left-wing voices, which you explicitly say that you hate. Your record of slander in fact includes a declared hate of the left, hatred of Islam and hatred for the Arab world (which you repeatedly call “broken”) as if it exists as a blanket entity.

These are just some of the people who come in for similar treatment by you — people I generally respect and admire as it happens:

Record of Slander:

* Robert Fisk: esteemed British journalist who works for the Independent, lives in Lebanon and has written several highly regarded books on the Middle East;
* (Dr) Saree Makdisi: Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UCLA;
* Cindy Sheehan (”Another Cow Put Out To Pasture: Cindy Sheehan’s Last Dance”) mother and tireless campaigner for justice and an end to the occupation of Iraq;
* Phillip Weiss: progressive American Jewish journalist, Sigmund’s post includes that moronic and oft-repeated phrase: “Dance, Philip Weiss, dance”;
* (Dr) Joseph Massad: Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University;
* The Left:”Yeah, leftists really do care about justice. Just like pedophiles care about children”;
* Dr Steven Soldz: psychoanalyist

The difference is that these people ignore you. I chose to address your claims. After this occasion, I may decide to use my time more judiciously.

Third, it is exceedingly curious that you appear to have an animal fixation: cows, beasts, apes, cockroaches and “bestial” are repeatedly mentioned in your veritable menagerie. You point the finger at a minority of racists in the Arab world calling Jews pigs as evidence of bigotry (and rightly so, though not representative as you claim), yet practise this insidious name calling and defining people as less than humans yourself. So how is this not hypocritical and offensive?

More examples with excerpts and links so the full context can be seen:

Hate:

*Why I Hate Islam:

SC&A: I hate Islam. I hate everything about what passes for Islam and I hate everyone who defends what passes for Islam. I hate Islamic politics, I hate the Islamic ’street’ and I hate Islamic fueled bigotry, racism and hate…. Hitler killed 50 million with bullets and fire. Islam is killing hundreds of millions with tyranny and evil and like Hitler, and what passes for Muslims today, rejoice in the deaths of those they kill.” [Yes, your “best friend” is Muslim, but you still hate it and its perceived effects on him]

On Hating, the Left and evil

* Saddam Hussein’s execution

SC&A: “It’s just a fascinating thing, you have people outraged at the execution and oblivious to the evil…. Evil has to be excised…. There’s a little too much “love” and not enough hate….” [My comment: Hate does not diminish evil, it sustains it; understanding root causes and addressing those is what dissolves it]

Religious superiority

* Jews, Basketball And The Human Potential

SC&A: “Pondering whether or not Jews are ’smarter’ than everyone else is like asking if basketball players are taller than everyone else. The evidence speaks for itself. The real question, is why Jews are smarter. There are of course, many theories. Some point to genetics, others point to culture. Yet others see the Jewish achievement as a combination of factors, giving no added weight to culture or genetics.”

Doesn’t play well with other children bloggers: (sample only)

* The Unapologetic Mexican
* Science Blogs
* Pajamas Media
* Flying Imam
* Politics Central
* Deltos (also calls him an ape in a tuxedo)

Lessons in maturity, tact and charm?

* “Be a man. Don’t run away like a cockroach when the light is on”
* Blog of Carrie: “…she might be best kept in the back rooms, doing repetetive tasks…not left alone with people…Carrie is living proof that dumbing down of educational standards alone can’t produce the level of stupidity seen on blogfart.”
* Treatment of Jasmine in comments here
* Name that tune, derision of commenter (but one example)

Contempt for readers/ self-aggrandisement (samples only)

* two-six-shooters-and-sacred-cows:

SC&A: “Most of you are clueless fools when it comes to politics. Now, don’t misunderstand. That you are clueless idiots isn’t your fault. You have been deluded into thinking you are reasonably intelligent and educated. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. That so many of you subscribe to certain political view (not ideologies- for the most part, you are incapable of actually understanding what a ideology really means), and acknowledge that by parroting the one liners and zingers that are bandied about, only highlights your level of spectacular shallowness.”

* SC&A: “Finally, as to my tone, longtime readers recall that for quite a while, SC&A was a rant blog- albeit far more intelligent and cutting than most”

***

Now, to addressing the points in the multiple posts I’ve apparently warranted. First, here’s a refresher from the original post thread “The Israeli Beast” (word document)

SIGMUND’S CLAIMS (indented and italicized, followed by my comments):

SC&A: the ‘occupation’ of the Palestinian territories has been the most benign occupation in history.

This is a false statement and an utterly absurd claim. The longest running military occupation in modern history has been immensely and willfully destructive, not benign, for for the Palestinians in the OPT (West Bank and Gaza Strip), with a ratio of 1:4 deaths – four Palestinians killed for every Israeli, most of them civilians, women and children. Is withholding Palestinians own money to invest in infrastructure, taxes Israel collects, “benign”? Is bombing an electricity station in the Gaza Strip and depriving Gaza of power “benign”? Is subjecting children and civilians to terrifying sonic booms on a regular basis “benign”? Humiliation at numerous checkpoints? Torture, strip-searches, strikes, bulldozing of houses, starvation, targeted killing, kidnapping of Palestinian ministers — the list could go on and on — “benign”?

SC&A: One more, Jews are being ‘ghettoized’ by the likes of el Khoury- this time, in their own country, singled out and set apart.

We are not here talking about Jews generally but Israelis specifically, one fifth of whom are Arabs, whose government is ghettoizing its own population.

SC&A: Just because it is au courrant to say criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, does not make it so. It an absurd and skewed look at reality. Criticism of Israel has become anti-Semitic because there is a different standard of measurement for Israel than there is for any other country (the same applies to the US. When America is criticized, is also by a different yardstick).

Whether it is au courrant or not is irrelevant, the simple fact is that criticism of Israel in and of itself is most certainly not anti-Semitic. Judith Butler has written a good piece here, No, it is not anti-Semitic.

The standards Israel are measured by are the standards it claims for itself – that of being democratic, claiming purity of arms, holding itself up above others (“light of nations). We already know most current Arab governments are despotic and authoritarian, but not uniformly so, but nor do they claim to be western-style democracies, nor are western-style democracies themselves the yardstick or paragon of virtue for other nations. In the region, Lebanon is also democratic and diverse along multi-religious lines.

The US is both praised and criticized by a hegemonial yardstick for the common-sensical reason that it’s a superpower. There are vastly different types of states, and it would not make sense holding Tuvalu or the Congo to the same set of standards, in part because they do not even claim the same standards as the US.

SC&A: SC&A wonder why el Khoury singles out Israel for such treatment. What is it about Israel that is so special? Why does el Khoury treat Israel so differently from other, real human rights violators? Of course, the answer is clear. Simply put, it is anti Semitism. To point to Israel as the worst human rights offender in the world is laughable.

First of all, Israel most certainly is a very “real” violator of human rights. Second, nowhere do I claim that Israel is the “worst human rights offender in the world”, another instance of Sigmund attempting attempting to put words in peoples mouths — which is to say, another falsehood.

Third, is Sigmund trying to dictate the chosen content of my posts? It is clearly my choice about what I post on, not his. I am not choosing to focus on human rights abuses in China, or the United States, or Australia. My chosen area of interest on this occasion in this blog venue is the Middle East, and by pointing out Israel’s egregious abuses and the fact that it does not live up to its own claims does not constitute singling out. Does someone interested in China get accused of singling out China and not looking at Israel, or Chechnya, or the Congo? Hardly, that’s simply their chosen area of focus.

So let me put the question back to Sigmund. What is it about Israel that is so special that one can not choose to legitimately focus upon its foreign policies without attracting the absurd charge that one is singling it out? Is it immune from legitimate criticism?

Is anyone telling him not to focus upon the Arab world? Or the Left? Or Islam, which he systematically vilifies?

The apparent difference between us is that I include Israeli voices of dissent, as well as right-of-centre voices too, whereas the left only appears in his posts to smear and slander them.

SC&A: There is simply a closing of doors and a cessation of communications, as if the case against Israel were so egregious that it stood out in a most singular fashion.

Sigmund, first you say I expended thousands of words, now you claim a “cessation of communications”. How exactly was the door closed? Did I not engage you point by point and address all key points? I’d say my communication was quite comprehensive, and I am under no compunction whatsoever to continue engaging with someone who resorts to facile smear and name-calling such as “cow”, “whore”, “nazi” and “postmodern ape in a tuxedo” — the level of your discourse, or lack thereof. Play civilly and mount substantive arguments, or suffer the consequences of being ignored. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Agent 99 for pointing out the updated link, the first location of which had lapsed (also updated on audio page). I’ve taken the opportunity to upload this talk again by Johan Galtung which I attended last year. His hybrid-but-mostly-Norwegian accent may make him sound like Inspector Clousseau as our friend notes, but his reflections are always worthwhile and enriching. (RT 81 m)

Galtung talks about enacting a positive peace through meaningful dialogue, about spiritual syncretism and an alliance of civilisations, with reference to the Danish cartoon controversy and other topical conflicts. This elder spokesman and founder of peace studies delivered this address at the Brisbane Festival of Ideas on the 31 March 2006.

Original .mp3 url

Relevant links:

• TRANSCEND Peace and Development Network
• International Peace Research Institute
• Wiki entry Johan Galtung
  

Further links: Conflict transformation

• Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation
• Beyond Intractability
• Conflict Resolution Information
• Peace Library Sri Linka and conflict related
• Transnational Perspectives

The Melbourne Age has compiled an interesting Top Ten Digital Cities List, and 6 of the ‘tech capitals’ of the world are in Asia.

The top 10 digital cities are ranked according to the following criteria: Broadband speed, cost and availability; Wireless internet access; Technology adoption; Government support for technology; Education and technology culture and Future potential. Arjun Ramachandran writes:

Asian cities scored well on broadband speed and availability, mainly because they have concentrated populations in a small land area. Seoul’s excellent wireless coverage, along with government programs such as Seoul Digital City, gave the city top billing.

Stockholm, San Francisco and Silicon Valley lack the affordability of fast broadband in Asian cities but enjoy high levels of education and a culture in favour of technology. In New York, a leading financial hub, access to wireless hotspots is also exceedingly good.

Tallinn and Beijing are cities to watch. Tallinn’s government already leads the way in e-government, while Beijing continues to roll out technology through the city ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Upon completion, New Songdo will likely be the ultimate digital city. Even as a work in progress, it makes the list.

© Benjamin Heine

TOP 10 DIGITAL CITIES

1. Seoul, Korea

2. Singapore

3. Tokyo, Japan

4. Hong Kong

5. Stockholm, Sweden

6. San Francisco and Silicon Valley, USA

7. Tallinn, Estonia

8. New York, USA

9. Beijing, China

10. New Songdo City

New Songdo City?, I hear you ask. As well you might — New Songdo City is a $31 billion city-in-the-making 60 km south of Seoul. Due for completion in 2010, it is an ambitious development on 600 hectares of reclaimed land that will be one of the world’s first cities in which all information systems are linked. One wonders: where do the Luddites go?

Read the Age article for more.

Conversely, also check out this interesting and important overview article on the global Digital Divide featured at Ben’s place

Part I: Conversations with bigotry: on Israel, Islam and Ideologues (Sigmund Carl and Alfred)

Part II (Updated, links added)

“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”
– John Kenneth Galbraith

It can be a jarring experience having your entire world-view questioned, all your underlying premises and taken for granted and on faith assumptions confronted and turned upside down. Some would rather cling to their prejudices than subject them to honest scrutiny, and hit back in a confused and vociferous manner when challenged.

We see this with Sigmund, Carl and Alfred and his continued misrepresentations and willful evasion of my arguments. I welcome views contrary to mine, and have engaged in civil dialogues with those who have quite disparate viewpoints on this site. I would have liked to think we could have had a productive discussion, but encountering willful denial precludes that possibility. The following takes apart, examines and responds to his latest comments.

Sigmund, Carl and Alfred again selectively raises the morality of Hamas (Sigmund, Carl and Alfred never applies the same standard and equal due scrutiny to Israel). Let’s see what the overlooked results are on the moral-meter: clean government (as opposed to the historically corrupt Fatah); kept a ceasefire for nearly two years (unlike Israel keeping up its end of the bargain); past religious tolerance despite themselves being Islamists; supporting genuine national self-determination and refusing to be a quisling for Israel or the Quartet.

Any group who dares to stand up for independence and against hegemonic state terror are profligately labeled terrorists (aka other peoples patriots) by SCA. What also escapes his attention entirely (and which he has had to retrospectively address and attempt to explain away) is Israeli funding support for Hamas. You read right, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Israel gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years. How unsurprising to some of us that a terror state would support what it calls a terror organization, in addition to repeatedly sabotaging peace and a Jewish terrorist assassinating the only Israeli PM who ever came even close to justice for and with the Palestinians.

Israel’s support for Hamas “was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative,” according to a former senior CIA official interviewed by Richard Sale of UPI.

Israel “aided Hamas directly — the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberati