http://kwagga.com/blog/ Something about anything that I, Hanif Kruger, AKA TheBat, Feels like sharing or noting down. en-us Nucleus CMS v3.64 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://kwagga.com/blog//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://kwagga.com/blog/ http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2230
Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Some 10,000 people worldwide use a version of the Web like no other: it is operated by voice over the telephone. Called the "Spoken Web," it is the result of an IBM research project attempting to re-create the features and functions of the text-based World Wide Web for people in developing regions with low levels of literacy and technical skills.

Four years since the first prototype was released, the spoken Web is part of everyday life for users in four Indian states and parts of Thailand and Brazil. These people use it to learn of things such as local grain prices or job opportunities. On the spoken Web, telephone numbers replace Web addresses. A person can call in to a voice site and listen to or record content.

Now the project is going through a developmental stage that mirrors one from the regular Web's history: the debut of search as a way to navigate a growing body of content.

"As the number of voice sites grows, and they get more content, people need a way to find what they want quickly," says Nitendra... ... Rajput, a senior researcher with IBM Research India. Rajput was an early collaborator on the spoken Web with project founder Arun Kumar.

A voice site has some structure: for example, when a person calls in to upload a site, they interact with an automated telephone system that accepts voice commands and prompts the user to create a title for their site and add sections of different information. However, listening to long voice messages is inefficient and costly, says Rajput.

"We want you to be able to speak a pesticide name, for example, to quickly find content about that," he says. But designing a search engine that works like that is far from simple. Voice-recognition technology can be used to take a person's search term and match it against a previously processed index of recorded voice sites. But presenting the results is a challenge. "We can't have it read out a list of 20 results. It would take too long, and people would not remember them all," says Rajput. "Instead it [must] tell the user it has that many, and ask how to narrow them down."

The user is asked which categories they wish to filter the results by—for example, by the name of the person who owns the site, the place it was created, or whether the search term was found in a section of a particular type, for example announcing news, or asking or answering a question. This step is repeated until there are five or fewer results, at which point they are all read out to the user who can choose which they want to "browse"

Trials involving 40 farmers in the Indian state of Gujarat validated this design, which is to be rolled out across the whole spoken Web. More features that aid navigation of content are needed, though. As the spoken Web grows, it becomes important to find more ways to aid navigation of content, says Rajput, just as similar mechanisms have been developed on the text-based Web.

Another improvement in the works provides a way to skim through voice sites. Users can already use a fast-forward function to hear a site at increased speed—the feature goes at 10 times normal speed, rendering words too fast to make out, but it slows down for certain important words or phrases. The effect is similar to a person skim-reading a text out loud, says Rajput, and it allows a person to very rapidly find what they want.

The researchers think the system could learn which words or phrases are important by looking at which particular phrases lead to users switching from fast-forward to normal-reading speed. "We are currently collecting the statistics from the users we have in order to know which words are important," says Rajput.

"So many people in the world have no idea how to use the Web or even to understand the text on it," says Naushad UzZaman, a researcher at the University of Rochester, New York. "Although you cannot remove the digital divide, making it possible to get the benefits of the Web by voice is an example of how we can narrow it."

UzZaman says technology should ideally be able to create a path that connects the fully or partially illiterate to at least some of the wider Web's features, though. He has prototyped a system that digests online text into much simpler sentences that convey the same essential meaning. Images are placed alongside the text to help people that struggle to read to get the gist. A prototype works well when tested on Wikipedia pages, says UzZaman.

Rajput says that, for now, IBM's spoken Web is completely separate from the World Wide Web, and that most users are mainly interested in local concerns. However, it is possible that the twain could meet. "If there is relevant information on the real Web, we can pull it in to the spoken Web using API calls and text-to-speech technology," says Rajput. "But it needs to be converted to the correct language, and support for that is not good outside U.S. English."

Source = http://www.technologyreview.com/web/32342/page1/?a=f ]]> internet http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2230 Fri, 18 Feb 2011 08:13:09 +0100 http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2228


This weekend is Voter Registration Weekend - 5 and 6 February from 08:00 to 17:00. You can call the toll free help line 0800 11 8000 for more information as to where to go. You need to take your green bar-coded South African ID book with you to register. If you do not have an ID book you need to take a Temporary Identity Certificate from Home Affairs with you to register.



You can check your registration status as follows:



1. By sending your ID number to 32810 (you will get a return SMS confirming your status)

2. By calling the toll free help line on 0800 11 8000

3. ... ... By checking on line at http://www.elections.org.za/ ]]> South-Africa News http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2228 Fri, 4 Feb 2011 14:35:56 +0100 http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2226
After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940's movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase.. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware. 'Would you carry my bag out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, and then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.

She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I told her. 'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my... ... mother treated'.. 'Oh, you're such a good boy', she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, and then asked, 'Could you drive through downtown?' 'It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly. 'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 'I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice'. I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left,' she continued. 'The doctor says I don't have very long.' I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. 'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighbourhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing. As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired. Let's go now'

We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her. I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair. 'How much do I owe you?' she asked, reaching into her purse. 'Nothing,' I said 'You have to make a living,' she answered. 'There are other passengers,' I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.. 'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she said. 'Thank you.' I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life. I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk.

What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away? On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life.

We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well 'dance'. ]]> Insparational http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2226 Wed, 22 Dec 2010 08:53:27 +0100 http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2225
Madsen has more than 20 years of experience in security affairs. As a U.S. Naval Officer, he managed one of the first computer security programs for the U.S. Navy. He has also worked for the NSA National Security Agency, the Naval Data Automation Command, Department of State, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation.

Madsen joined me in an exclusive interview and answered my questions about the 9/11 attacks, Israel's dominance over the U.S. media and the prospect of Iran-U.S. relations.

Kourosh Ziabari: There are many unanswered questions regarding the catastrophic attacks of September 11, 2001 about which you've written extensively. Several investigative journalists believe that the attacks were an inside job... ... planned by the FBI and perpetrated by Israel or elements connected to Mossad. Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga has categorically expressed that the 9/11 attacks were a joint operation of FBI and Mossad. General Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's Intelligence Service believes that Israel was behind the attacks, too. What's your estimation of these theories, their veracity and reliability? Is it demonstrable that the 9/11 attacks were a false flag operation or an inside job?

Wayne Madsen: I don't believe the attacks were planned by the FBI. I believe they were an operation carried out by Mossad, Saudi intelligence, with which Mossad has had and continues to have a close relationship since the days of the Safari Club of western and Middle East intelligence services combining their operations, and elements of the CIA. Cossiga, Gul, parliament members in Germany, Britain, and Japan, the late British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, and others all understood this was an inside job that also involved a handful of people at the top of the Bush administration, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, A.B.Krongard of the CIA, and Rudolph Giuliani, as well.

KZ: In 2003, you stated that you uncovered documents which reveal a relationship between the Saudi government and the S-11 hijackers. It's a complicated issue; you know, from one hand, Saudi Arabia is a strategic ally of the United States in the Persian Gulf region. From the other hand, the United States attributed the attacks to Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, which we already know rose to prominence with the indirect and direct support of the United States. At another side of the story, we find the close relationship between the House of Saud and the Bin Laden Family which is a major stakeholder in the Saudi economics. How is it possible to solve this complexity? Can we conclude that the old friends became new enemies and betrayed each other?

WM: The Sauds and the Bin Ladens were close allies of the Bush family, which had everything to gain in the 9-11 attacks. The only way to discover the Saudi role is for a Saudi whistleblower to come forward; however, that may only happen after the inevitable overthrow of the Saudi monarchy. As many Saudis know, the Sauds are not only in lockstep with the Americans and Israelis but they are descendant from a Jewish merchant family that originally lived in what is now Kuwait. Wahhabism in fact serves the interests of Israel's Zionist Judaism, both emphasize extremism and sectarianism that keeps the Middle East in constant turmoil and extends the rule of the Wahhabi Sauds and Zionists.

KZ: You know that the Iraq of Saddam Hussein era was a close ally of the United States in 1980s. The United States gave the green light to Saddam to attack Iran, and backed him strategically, militarily and financially. 20 years later, the equations changed altogether. The close ally became the villain and came under fire. The man whom the United States had equipped for waging a war against Iran was arrested and executed by the same United States. What happened that changed everything in this way?

WM: This is part of the U.S. policy. Use leaders it creates and then dispose of them. It has happened with Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam, Manuel Noriega in Panama, Trujillo in Dominican Republic, Savimbi in Angola, and the lost goes on.

KZ: Having all of what you've written regarding the 9/11 attacks in mind, there still remains a number of ambiguities concerning what happened during the week leading to September 11. One of these incidences was the unexpected declaration of martial law by John Ellis Bush, the Governor of Florida in the state before 9/11. We also know that the Israeli ZIM Shipping Company pulled out its headquarters from the World Trade Center's north tower just days before September 11. The media also divulged that 4000 Israeli employees of the WTC didn't attend their work on September 11. Are these revelations enough to conclude that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks?

WM: The entire reaction of the U.S. defense and early warning systems on 9/11 indicates involvement by high-level officials, including Jeb Bush and his brother Marvin Bush, who had financial interests in the firm that had the security contracts for the World Trade Center and Dulles International Airport. The 4000 Jews who didn't go to work was something tossed out by the Israeli disinformation machine to point to as an anti-Jewish "conspiracy theory." There were no 4000 Israelis or Jews working at the WTC who did not show up for work. This is psychological warfare operation.

KZ: Iran and the G5+1, representing five permanent members of the UNSC and Germany, are about to sit at a table for a new round of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. Are these negotiations going to yield constructive results? What I want to ask you is that is Iran's uranium enrichment program the mere concern of the international community? Will they bring to an end their financial sanctions and military threats should Iran halts its enrichment program?

WM: No, they want the ending of the nuclear program all together. We now know that Yukia Amano was installed as head of IAEA by the U.S. and its allies to act on Washington's and Israel's behalf. This is a complete change from the past head of IAEA ElBaradei, who the neo-cons and Zionists hated.

KZ: In one of your articles, you've elaborately discussed the authorization of a covert economic war against the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez by the U.S. President Barack Obama. It had been previously reported that the ex-President Bush administration also pursued the conduction of a set of clandestine intelligence operations in Iran to destabilize the national government. You mentioned that the United States carries out its operations through subservient NGOs who work to meet the interests of Washington in a target country. How is it possible for the United States to organize such destabilizing operations? What are the objectives which the United States follows through these efforts?

WM: Most of the NGO operations are carried out by George Soros's groups and others funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Even the Peace Corps is misused, which is against the policy of President Kennedy who established the group to do good. In Iran, Soros and USAID and National Endowment for Democracy funded groups aim to cause problems with the minorities: Kurds, Ahwazis, Baluchis, Azeris, Turkmen, and others.

KZ: In the recent Wikileaks documents which were released a few days ago, it has been alleged that a number of Persian Gulf Arab countries had furtively asked the U.S. government to launch a military strike against Iran so as to avert the conceived threat of a nuclear Iran. How much credible are these documents and how do they affect the U.S. foreign relations? In what ways do these allegations benefit Israel?

WM: Most of these comments were relayed by the U.S. diplomats who have political agendas. It should be noted that some of these meetings where these comments were made were attended and reported on by American Jewish diplomats with Zionist leanings, for example, Michael Gfoeller, the US charge d'affaires in Riyadh, also Gen. David Petraeus's political aide, who attended meetings with King Abdullah.

KZ: For the final question, I want to ask you about the unconditional support which the United States offers to Israel. What has made the United States the staunchest ally of Tel Aviv? Why does the White House degrade itself to the level of the representative of Israel in the international organizations and the United Nations Security Council? Many Middle East experts believe that it is the influence of Zionist lobby over the economy of the United States which has created this immutable connection between Tel Aviv and Washington. What's your idea? How do you estimate the influence of Zionist lobby over the U.S. government?

WM: The Israeli Lobby owns the Congress, media, Hollywood, Wall Street, both political parties, and the White House. This kind of talk will get people fired by this lobby, as we have seen recently with White House correspondent Helen Thomas and CNN anchor Rick Sanchez. However, many Americans are growing tired of the arrogance of the Israel Lobby and their bigoted attitudes toward anyone who challenges their influence-peddling and their ridiculous insistence that Israel must be supported because of some ancient fairy tales involving some tribes who wandered the deserts of the Middle East and saw and heard non-existent things because of sun stroke, drinking bad water, and smoking local hallucinogenic plants.

Kourosh Ziabari is an independent journalist from Iran and regular contributor to Rebel News.

Source URL = http://www.rebelnews.org/opinion/americas/548540-the-israeli-lobby-owns-the-congress-hollywood-and-the-white-house ]]> General http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2225 Mon, 6 Dec 2010 16:28:40 +0100 http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2223
On 16 September 1948, Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nations Mediator for Palestine, submitted his progress report to the United Nations. It contained what he described as "seven basic premises" regarding the situation in Palestine. In the one headed "Right of Repatriation," he declared: "The right of innocent people, uprooted from their homes by the present terror and ravages of war, to return to their homes, should be affirmed and made effective, with assurance of adequate compensation for the property of those who may choose not to return.... [N]o settlement can be just and complete if recognition is not accorded to the right of the Arab refugee to return to the home from... ... which he has been dislodged. It will be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right of return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine..."
On 17 September 1948, the day after he submitted his progress report to the UN, Count Folke Bernadotte, along with his French aid [sic], Colonel Serot, was assassinated in Jerusalem by men wearing uniforms of the Israeli army who were subsequently discovered to be members of the Stern Gang, a Jewish terrorist group headed by among others, Yitzhak Shamir, a future prime minister of Israel.

- Palestinian Refugees' Right of Return; CanPalNet, Sept 2006

The assassination of Count Bernadotte made international headlines, and the Israeli government -- which the U.S. Department suspected of complicity in the assassination - quickly arrested 30 members of the LEHI suspected of involvement in planning and carrying out the killings. However, most were quietly set free within days of their arrest, while the remainder were released without charge in February 1949. No-one was ever charged in connection with the murder.

It was ironic that Bernadotte should met his end at the hands of Zionists in Israel, in view of his diplomatic efforts in World War Two on behalf of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. As vice-chairman of the Swedish Red Cross, Bernadotte - working in conjunction with the Stockholm representative of the World Jewish Congress - arranged the sending of 70,000 food parcels to Jewish prisoners. And in early 1945 he led the "white buses" expedition to Germany, in which he negotiated the release from the camps and evacuation to Sweden of about 30,000 people.

Gary Keenan comments: For obvious reasons, Israel has yet to acknowledge Count Folke Bernadotte's extraordinary humanitarian accomplishment. As Jewish historian Moshe Menuhin (father of violinist Yehudi Menuhin) remarked: "To this day it is almost a crime to recall the murder of Count Bernadotte. Forgotten is the name of the noble man who was a victim of ungrateful, land-hungry jingoists"....

It seems a shame that someone who might otherwise have been the subject of some Steven Spielberg blockbuster should be forgotten just because he was politically incorrect enough to be murdered by the wrong kind of terrorist, so I thought I at least might commemorate him today.

NOTE: I've changed the time that has passed since the event took place, so as to reflect 2010 and not 2006.

SOURCE: http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2006/09/death_of_a_slig.html ]]> Zionism http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2223 Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:03:00 +0200 http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2221
Following Netanyahu’s much anticipated policy speech, politicians and journalists, like mindless automatons, have set about repeating Israel’s tired mantra that Palestinians should recognize Israel’s right to exist. Never mind the fact that the PLO and Palestine Authority have obliged this ludicrous call, not once, but four times. And never mind that Israel has always denied Palestine’s right to exist, not only as a nation, but as individuals seeking a dignified life in our own homeland.

Does anyone find it interesting that Israel is the only country on the planet going around with this incessant insistence that everyone recognize her right to exist? Given that we Palestinians are the ones who have been dispossessed, occupied, and oppressed, one might expect that we should be the ones making such a demand. But t hat isn’t the case. Why? Because our right to exist as a nation is self-evident. We are the natives of that land! We know we have that right. The world knows it. That’s why Palestine doesn’t need Israel or any other country to recognize her right to exist. We are the rightful heirs to that land and this can be verified legally, historically, culturally,... ... and even genetically. And as such, the only true legitimacy Israel will ever have must come from us abdicating our inheritance, our history, and our culture to Israel. That’s why Israel insists we declare she had a right to take everything we ever had — from home and property, cemeteries, churches and mosques, to culture and history and hope.

Israel is a country that was founded by Europeans who came to Palestine, formed terrorist gangs who set about a systematic ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians from their homes on 78% of Historic Palestine in 1948. Those Palestinians and their descendants still languish in refugee camps. Israel attempted a similar scenario in 1967 when they conquered the remainder of Palestine, but Palestinians then couldn’t be dislodged from their homes as easily. This remains true, despite 40 years of Israel’s violent and oppressive military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Despite home demolitions, land confiscations, rapacious building of Jewish-only colonies, endless checkpoints, targeted assassinations, bombings of schools, hospitals, municipal buildings and malls, closures and denials; despite the massive human rights abuses, the imprisonment and torture of men women and children alike, the separation of families, the daily humiliations; despite the massive killings — Palestinians remain. We still resist. We still live, love, and have babies. As much as we can, we rebuild what Israel destroys. Such are rights!
Rights are inherent and inherently just, like the right to live with dignity and to be masters of one’s own fate. It is a human right not be persecuted and oppressed because you happen to belong to one religion and not another.

That Israelis simply take property belonging to Palestinians is not a right. That is theft. That Israel cut off the movement of food, medicine and other basic goods to the Gaza strip, causing massive malnutrition, economic collapse and misery because Palestinians elected particular leaders is not a right. That is an affront to humanity. That Israel rain death from the skies on an already battered and starved Gaza, murdering over 3000 human beings and maiming thousands more in a single month is not a right. It’s a war crime. That Israel has employed every imperialistic tactic to subjugate, humiliate, break, and expel an entire nation of principally unarmed civilians because of their religion is not a right. It is a moral obscenity. That every Jew from Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Australia be entitled to dual citizenship, one in their native country and one in Israel, while the rightful heirs to the land linger as refugees without citizenship anywhere is not a right. It is an outrage.

I’m sure my words will be twisted in some way to imply that I’m advocating pushing Israelis “into the sea” or some other asinine claim. So let me be explicit: We all have the right to exist, to live, to be masters of our own destiny. We all have the right not to be oppressed by others. Such rights are inherent to every individual living in that land: Jew, Muslim, or Christian. But Israelis do not have the right to create particular religious demographics by causing the demise of the natives. To be a Jewish [or Muslim or Christian] state, where privilege is accorded to those belonging to a particular religion at the expense of those who do not is not a right.

A nation that discriminates against and oppresses those who do not belong to a particular religious, racial, or ethnic group is not a light onto nations. It is a blight. And to recognize such racism as a human or national right goes against every tenet of international law. It defies the basic sense that the worth of a human being should not be measured by their religion, any more than it should be measured by the color of their skin or the language they speak.

Susan Abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin, a work of historic fiction. She is also the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, and Board Member of Deir Yassin Remembered. She can be reached at: sjabulhawa[at]yahoo[dot]com.
Visit Susan's website at http://playgroundsforpalestine.com/

Source URL = http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/06/does-israel-really-have-a-right-to-exist/ ]]> Zionism http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2221 Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:38:51 +0200 http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2219
Dear Clemence,

I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me.
Love,

Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Papa,
For heaven's sake, Papa, don't dig up that garden, that's where I buried the bodies.

Love,
Clemence

At 4 A.M. the next morning, the Scorpion Unit, NIA agents and local police showed up and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies.
They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

"Dear Papa,
Go ahead and plant the potatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love

Clemence."]]> Funnies http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2219 Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:21:47 +0200 http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2218
Originally published on October 23rd, 2010

First a given: there can be no resistance unless there is something to resist against. There can be no anti-occupation resistance if there is no occupation, and there can be no resistance against oppression if there is no oppression. It is a simple logic that eludes many people. That it eludes many people (and almost all of the corporate media) is demonstrable by noting the outcry whenever a resistance uses violence: Those evil, soulless terrorists harming other people — and they do it without reason. Well, there is a reason, although the corporate media refuses to divulge it. Occupation/ oppression is violent, and it gives rise to resistance. There would be no violence were it not for the violence of occupation and oppression. There is no chicken and egg here. It ls obvious that the sole target of vehemence should be the occupation/oppression that induces the resistance, for without the occupation/oppression and the violence that perpetuates it, there would be no violent resistance. Ergo, resistance (whether non-violent or violent) seeks to end violence by defeating an occupation/oppression.

Imagine that a serial rapist breaks into a home and a woman is violently... ... attacked. She responds by pulling out a Smith and Wesson from her dresser and shooting the intruder. Is she now a terrorist? Was her violent resistance wrong? Evil? Illegitimate? Or should she have organized a non-violent resistance against her would-be rapist, such as a boycott of any stores that serve the rapist? Are there many people who would even contemplate such questions?

So why does this simple scenario get turned on its head when it comes to Palestinians and the Zionist Jews who serially violate the Palestinian people?

I had addressed that topic recently in my article “Progressivist Principles and Resistance.” Yesterday, Ramzy Baroud, an Arab-American journalist and chronicler of the Palestinian struggle, wrote an article, “The Violence Debate: Teaching the Oppressed How to Fight Oppression,” that suggested further insight into the topic.

However, there was not much debate about violence in his article. It deals at length with non-violent resistance and cursorily, at most, with violent resistance.

As for the subtitle, it begs the question: who will teach the oppressed how to fight oppression?

Baroud mentions an unnamed Bethlehem organization which invites speakers from Europe and the United States to teach non-violent resistance.

However, if one has never experienced oppression first hand, how does one become a qualified teacher on fighting oppression? Further, since Europe and the US staunchly support Zionism in historical Palestine, why are the invitees sought from these lands?

The Bethlehem organization teaches “the perils of violence and the wisdom of non-violence.” The perils are not mentioned and neither is the wisdom of non-violence, although this is presumably non-violence in the face of violence. If I were an oppressor, I would much rather face a non-violent resistance than a violent resistance. The only thing better would be no resistance. So what is so wise about a resistance movement that throws away a tool from its toolbox?

The Bethlehem organization proffers a line of reasoning that implies Palestinians are naturally violent and that they must be taught non-violence. One wonders where Palestinians may have learned their violence having been oppressed by Zionist Jews for many decades.

Baroud writes of a “largely visual volume [that] … highlighted how Palestinians resisted the occupation peacefully, in contrast to the prevalent media depictions linking Palestinian resistance to violence.”

A logical lacuna is evident here: non-violent resistance is being portrayed as violent “resistance,” but I hardly think the corporate media would depict Palestinians as a resistance. The corporate media depicts Palestinians as “terrorists” and “insurgents.” The deduction is that resistance — whether it be violent or non-violent – is reported as being violent. Ergo, insofar as the corporate media shapes or influences public opinion, non-violent resistance has minimal upsides to it. In the corporate media rendering, all resistance is violent.

Baroud tells of another book “glorifying non-violent resistance.” Palestinian fighters were converting to non-violent resistance because they had discovered that “not all Israelis supported the military occupation.”[italics added] This realization led to the conclusion that “an environment that allowed both Israelis and Palestinians to work together would be best for Palestinians seeking other, more effective means of liberation.”

First, is this realistic or fanciful? No rationale was offered for why this would be “more effective [while noting it was claimed to be the most effective] means of liberation.” How do the oppressed Palestinians work with 4 percent of the oppressor population against the other 96 percent? After all, the Jerusalem Post reported that 96 percent of Israeli Jews supported the Operation Cast Lead massacre in Gaza. To the extent that Palestinians are so fundamentally disarmed by their oppressors that violent resistance is futile and counterproductive, then the resort to non-violent resistance is imposed upon them. But resisting violent oppression with violence against the oppressor is legitimate, and it is legitimate because of the oppression. The oppression is what must be targeted; it is the source of all violence — not the resistance. Clearly, without oppression there would be no resistance.

Second, why should the resistance convert to non-violent means? Baroud channels Gandhi and his non-violent resistance — Satyagraha. However, Gandhi’s Satyagraha targets the oppressors for conversion from their violent ways. It is preposterous that the victims of oppression should be targeted to convert to non-violence under conditions of oppressor violence. Should the Jewish resistance to Nazi German violence have been targeted for conversion to non-violence?

Baroud notes a message: “Palestinians are being taught non-violence; Palestinians are responding positively to the teachings of non-violence.”

This raises a question: How should an occupier feel about being met with non-violence? Is the violence of the occupier/oppressor in response to violent resistance? Of course not; to believe that one would have to posit that the Palestinians relinquished their land to pacific Zionist overtures.

Baroud writes that non-violence “ignite[s] a sense of hope.” Hope!? Baroud abysmally channels Obama. Hope is a word, and a word is easily promised. The Palestinians have been promised many words, including Oslo and the latest “peace negotiations.”

In Lebanon, the resistance movement Hezbollah did not rely on hope; Hezbollah violently resisted the Israeli occupation and defeated it.

Baroud states “a Palestinian Gandhi already exists, in numerous West Bank villages bordering the Israeli Apartheid Wall, which peacefully confront carnivorous Israeli bulldozers as they eat up Palestinian land.”

Of what use so far has this non-violent resistance been in ending the occupation/oppression of Palestinians? Moreover, why do some people assume that Satyagraha caused the British to leave the Indian subcontinent? The British empire was overextended, and a continued physical colonization of India was becoming very unprofitable to Britain.

Baroud does take some aim at non-violence. He says, “The problem with the non-violence bandwagon is that it is grossly misrepresentative of the reality on the ground. It also takes the focus away from the violence imparted by the Israeli occupation…”

He says near the end of the article: “Only the unique experience of the Palestinian people and their genuine struggle for freedom could yield what Palestinians as a collective deem appropriate for their own.” This is in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.

Choosing the most effective form(s) of resistance is important to any resistance movement. External actors have little right to limit the tactics of a legitimate resistance movement. Any violence is provoked by the oppressor/occupier.

One wonders then why Baroud went so into depth on non-violence resistance without exploring or acknowledging the legitimacy of violent resistance, even though he granted that “the violence of the occupier has a tremendous role in creating” a violent resistance. A “role”? Without occupation/oppression, the conditions for a resistance would not exist.

That is a fact that requires no debate.

Source URL = http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/10/ending-violent-resistance/ ]]> palestine http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2218 Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:13:22 +0200 http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2216
Anti-Semitism as defined by Zionism, the colonial, ethnic cleansing enterprise of some Jews, has come to mean almost all criticism of Israel’s policies and actions, in particular its oppression of the Palestinians, and, also, criticism on the basis of revelations from the documented truth of history which expose Zionism’s propaganda for the nonsense it is. Put another way, anti-Semitism as defined by supporters of Israel right or wrong is anything written or said by anybody that challenges and contradicts Zionism’s version of events. In effect Zionists say, “If you disagree with us, you’re anti-Semitic”.

As a blackmail card to silence criticism of Israel and prevent informed and honest debate about who must do what and why for justice and peace in the Middle East, Zionism’s false charge of anti-Semitism has worked wonderfully well to date. Why? In the long (and still present) shadow of the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust,... ... a European crime for which, effectively, the Arabs were punished, there are few things Westerners in public life, politicians and media people especially, fear more than being accused of anti-Semitism.

Unable to refute the substance of documented and objective messages of challenge and criticism, Zionism’s policy always was, and still is, to shoot the messengers with false charges of anti-Semitism.

In 2004, the US Congress passed the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act. The Act defines a person as being anti-Semitic for holding any of a number of beliefs.

1. Any assertion, “that the Jewish community controls government, the media, international business and the financial world.”

2. The expression of “Strong anti-Israel sentiment”.

3. Expressing “Virulent criticism” of Israel’s leaders, past or present.

4. Any criticism of the Jewish religion or its religious leaders with its emphasis on the Talmud and Kabbala.

5. Any criticism of the United States government and Congress for being under the undue influence by the Jewish-Zionist community, which would include Jewish organizations such as AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee).

6. Any criticism of the Jewish-Zionist community for promoting globalism or what some call the “New World Order”.

7. Placing any blame on Jewish leaders and their followers for inciting the Roman crucifixion of Christ.

8. Citing any facts that could in any way diminish the “six million” figure of Jewish holocaust victims.

9. Claiming that Israel is a racist state.

10. Making any claim that there is a “Zionist conspiracy”.

11. Offering proof that Jews and their leaders created Communism and the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.

12. Making derogatory statements about Jewish persons.

13. Asserting that spiritually disobedient Jews do not have the Biblical right to re-occupy Palestine.

14. Making any allegations of Mossad involvement in the 9/11 attack. ]]> General http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2216 Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:04:29 +0200 http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2215
The below info, if you follow all the steps, will give you a regular phone number in the USA, which will ring on your SIP or IAX device, all at no cost to you.

Here's what you do:

• Visit http://phone.ipkall.com/




• Please fill in your actual email address. If you fail to do so, you will just not receive your new phone number.




• Make sure that you already have an existing SIP or IAX account if you don't, first go register one. Have a look at my post on IPTel.org's free sip account.




• Select if you want to use a SIP or Iax account.
  If you don't know the difference between the two, just select SIP. It's highly likely that you're using a SIP account.




• Choose Area Code for your IPKall Number: You have 3 choices: 206, 360 and 425.




• Now you have to fill in your SIP or IAX phone number. Note, this number is the number that make up the details of the SIP or IAX account that you have previously registered.




• Next you have to fill in your SIP Proxy:... ... This info should be part of your SIP or IAX account details that you have previously registered.




• Email Address: Please fill in the correct email address. Your new phone number will be emailed to this address.




• Choose a password.



• Number of Seconds to ring before hanging up: Here you can specify how long you want your new number to ring before it will disconnect. The default is 120 seconds.



• Fill in the captia



• Hit the submit button



• Check your email for your new phone number.
  
• And you're done.

Just keep in mind that IPKall numbers will be terminated if not used for 30 days. You won't even receive a warning. ]]> Voice Over IP http://kwagga.com/blog/index.php?itemid=2215 Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:56:19 +0200