|
A number of Asian and European governments are convinced
that there has to be an effective international regulatory framework
to ensure accountability and transparency on the part of capital markets
and rating agencies. They feel that the absence of a regulatory framework
is the primary cause of the current global financial crisis. At the
crucial 15 November Summit of the leaders of twenty of the world’s
most important economies in Washington, they are expected to push
for greater market surveillance and oversight.
Can we expect Asian and European leaders at the Washington
Summit to go beyond that? Can we also expect them to call for the
permanent banning of unregulated short selling of stocks and shares?
Will they ask for a ban on unscrupulous trade in derivatives? Will
they seek to prohibit speculation on shares, currencies and commodities?
Are they prepared to propose fundamental structural changes to the
international financial architecture to ensure that the prohibition
of speculation remains effective? Are they ready to commit themselves
to the eventual goal of eliminating casino capitalism itself, once
and for all?
For casino capitalism is at the root of the global
financial crisis. As the author of the term, the late British academic,
Susan Strange, observed some 22 years ago, “The Western financial
system is rapidly coming to resemble nothing as much as a vast casino.
Every day games are played in this casino that involve sums of money
so large that they cannot be imagined. At night the games go on at
the other side of the world. In the towering office blocks that dominate
all the great cities of the world, rooms are full of chain-smoking
young men all playing these games. Their eyes are fixed on computer
screens flickering with changing prices. They play by intercontinental
telephone or by tapping electronic machines. They are just like the
gamblers in casinos watching the clicking spin of a silver ball on
a roulette wheel and putting their chips on red or black, odd or even
ones.”
“ As in a casino, the world of high finance
today offers the players a choice of games. Instead of roulette, blackjack,
or poker, there is dealing to be done — foreign exchange market
and all its variations; or in bonds, government securities or shares.
In all these markets you may place bets on the future by dealing forward
and by buying or selling options and all sorts of other recondite
financial inventions. Some of the players — banks especially
— play with large stakes. There are also many quite small operators.
There are tipsters, too, selling advice, and peddlers of systems to
the gullible. And the croupiers in this global financial casino are
the big bankers and brokers.”
The growth of casino capitalism can perhaps be traced
back to 1973 though the signs were already present in the sixties.
It was in 1973 that there was an effective devaluation of the dollar
“and the accompanying decision to leave the determination of
exchange rates to the markets”. This decision followed the unilateral
abrogation of the Bretton Woods system by the then US President, Richard
Nixon, in August 1971. By allowing markets to determine exchange rates,
market volatility increased. It is this volatility brought about by
floating rates that has opened the door to massive speculation, accelerated
no doubt by the ever expanding reservoir of capital from the eighties
onwards, and the computer revolution.
The adverse impact of speculation upon the rapid
exit of capital from markets has ruined many an economy and left millions
of people destitute. In recent years we have witnessed the pain and
suffering it has caused to the poor in Indonesia and Argentina. Today,
tens of thousands of Americans who have lost their jobs have become
the latest victims of that unfettered capitalism of the casino that
the worshippers of the market idolize.
Casino capitalism has also led to the concentration
of wealth and the widening of income and social disparities between
the upper and lower echelons of society on a global scale as never
before. In the US, this is reflected in the astronomical personal
incomes of the fat cats of Wall Street that exceeded a billion US
dollars in the five years from 2003 to 2007. Among the industrial
economies of the Global North, the US has the worst income differentials
between rich and poor. Indeed, in a number of other countries which
once boasted of fairly equitable income distributions, such as South
Korea and Singapore in the East and Canada and Germany in the West,
the globalizaton of casino capitalism has resulted in increasing income
gaps.
If these income disparities and the increasing concentration
of wealth in the hands of a few appear to be acceptable to the majority
of the populace, it is partly because casino capitalism has succeeded
— as no other ideology before it has — in institutionalizing
and legitimizing greed as a social phenomenon. The rapacious acquisition
and accumulation of wealth by an elite is sanctified as a vital pre-requisite
for the progress and prosperity of the people. The poor, it is argued,
will eventually benefit from the wealth created by the elite.
It is doubtful if Asian and European leaders will
want to expose the evil of casino capitalism at the Washington Summit.
Though the state driven capitalism of East Asian states such as Japan,
Korea and China and the social market capitalism of much of Western
Europe are in some respects different from the casino capitalism that
originated in the US, their economies are so interlocked today that
it would be almost impossible for the former to disengage from the
latter without serious repercussions for their own societies. It is
widely acknowledged for instance that it is in the interest of China
and Japan who hold billions of dollars worth of US treasury bills
and other financial instruments to ensure that the US economy remains
afloat in the face of the present crisis. Similarly, derivatives trading,
options and futures contracts are as integral to British and German
financial centers as they are to New York. Even Saudi Arabia, one
of the countries invited to the Summit, whose economy is purportedly
‘Islamic’ is deeply entrenched in the US helmed international
financial system. Besides, the US elite, while making some concessions
here and there, can be expected to defend casino capitalism to the
last currency speculator since it ensures the global financial hegemony
of the US.
This is why the real challenge to casino capitalism
will have to come from people’s movements and other civil society
groups outside the State. Groups in the US in particular and the West
in general will have a big role to play. Civil society groups in other
parts of the world will be their partners. In this regard, it will
be recalled that it was the sustained challenge from labor and socialist
movements that forced nineteenth century European capitalism to shed
its uglier features and attempt a degree of transformation.
Civil society groups today should not only intensify
their criticism of, and campaign against, casino capitalism in all
its ramifications. They should articulate with much greater intellectual
vigor and moral candor an alternative vision that goes beyond the
crisis of the moment. Eliminating speculation and establishing an
effective regulatory framework aside, they should suggest how a just
international monetary system could be created which would have phased
out the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. A people
based banking system with citizens’ oversight and a global taxation
system to prevent transfer pricing and tax evasion should also be
explored as part of this alternative vision.
The alternative vision should incorporate new ideas
on expenditure and investment. Military expenditure should be reduced
drastically at national levels. Let us not forget that US military
spending in Vietnam was one of the reasons why it chose to abandon
the fixed exchange rate in the earlier seventies. The Iraq War which
some economists estimate has already cost the US 3 trillion dollars
is one of the indirect causes of the present financial mess in the
US. The savings made from the military budget of the US and other
militaristic states and the huge reserves accumulated by China, Japan
and other countries should be directed towards eradicating global
poverty, providing basic social services such as water, electricity,
health, education and housing, and building roads, railway lines and
ports in areas that lack the infrastructure for economic development.
Governments should also be encouraged to invest substantially in agricultural
and industrial research and in environmental protection and enhancement.
Most people everywhere I suspect will endorse this
alternative vision, aspects of which have been put forward by some
social movements and non-governmental organizations which had participated
in the People’s Forum that had paralleled the Asia-Europe Meeting
(ASEM) in Beijing in the middle of October this year. It is those
in the vortex of casino capitalism and the governments and elites
aligned to them who will oppose the vision and the transformation
it promises. It underscores the critical importance of a global people’s
movement to fight casino capitalism, and indeed, capitalism itself.
28 October 2008
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is President of the International Movement for
a Just World (JUST) and Professor of Global Studies at Universiti
Sains Malaysia in Penang, Malaysia.
back
to top
By Chandra
Muzaffar
In the wake of Barack Obama’s electoral triumph in the
United States, some Malaysian politicians, NGO activists, newspaper
columnists, and members of the general public have made utterly shallow
and superficial comments about the significance of his victory to
minorities and ethnic politics in Malaysia.
The US’ majority-minority dichotomy has very
little relevance to our country. Though a member of the African-American
minority which is about 12 percent of the US population, Obama subscribes
to Christianity, the religion of the White majority. His mother tongue—
English— is the mother tongue of the majority community. His
culture is to all intents and purposes indistinguishable from the
culture of the majority.
Like most other African Americans, and indeed most
of the other minorities such as the Latinos and the Asians, Obama
has been absorbed and assimilated into what is sometimes described
as mainstream ‘White Anglo-Saxon Protestant’ (WASP) culture.
However, for African-Americans in particular their total assimilation
was hampered and hindered by the racial barrier of colour. It was
the colour bar with all its historical (slavery) and sociological
(lower economic echelon) implications that underscored their minority
status.
Compare their minority status to the position of
the Chinese and Indian Malaysian minorities. The vast majority of
Chinese and Indian Malaysians are non-Muslims and have no affiliation
whatsoever to Islam, the religion of the majority Malay community.
The Malay language is not their mother tongue. In fact, the overwhelming
majority of the Chinese community in particular remains deeply attached
to its own mother tongue. More than 90 percent of Chinese parents
send their children to Chinese primary schools. For the most part
Chinese and Indian cultures have preserved and perpetuated their distinct
identities.
Chinese and Indian elites whether there are in government
or with the opposition have always been opposed to any attempt to
absorb their communities into the cultural ethos of the majority community.
Neither has the government been inclined towards assimilation as a
cultural policy. By and large, it is the path of integration that
the government has chosen which accommodates cultural diversity, and,
at the same time, seeks to promote unity by emphasizing the primacy
of Malay, the nation’s lingua franca. The Chinese and Indian
communities, there is no doubt at all, prefer integration to assimilation.
Since this is their preference they should not expect an assimilated
‘Obama’ to emerge from their ranks. They cannot have the
cake and eat it at the same time!
To explain this in more concrete terms, one should
perhaps try to visualize the life story of an Obama equivalent in
Malaysia. His father would have come from a Buddhist, or Hindu or
Christian family outside Malaysia, married a Malay- Muslim woman from
say Kedah or Kelantan, and produced an offspring (Barack Obama) who
would have spoken Malay as his mother tongue, studied in a Malay medium
school, graduated from a Malay medium university, and would have been
thoroughly assimilated into Malay culture and Malay society. How could
one regard such a person as the poster-boy of the Chinese or Indian
minority in this country?
This illustrates the danger of making simplistic
comparisons between minorities in two totally different situations
without any understanding of their respective milieus. Rather than
indulge in such rhetoric which invariably has a communal edge to it,
our politicians and media commentators should help to promote our
Bahasa Malaysia based primary school as the school of first choice
so that young Malaysians will at least have the opportunity to interact
with another during the most impressionable stage of their lives.
Of course, interaction alone will not enhance national unity if we
are not just and fair to everyone, regardless of their cultural or
religious affiliation.
Chandra Muzaffar.
7 November 2008.
back
to top
By Chandra
Muzaffar
The decision of the Penang state government to put
up road signs in different languages within the island’s heritage
enclave is ill-conceived as it is unwise.
That it will help foreign visitors to the enclave
to understand Penang’s heritage better is a facile argument.
In many of the heritage cum historical sites that I have visited in
other countries, the authorities provide some explanation of their
significance in an international language such as English. This practice
of providing information to the foreign visitor in an international
language should be encouraged. However, it should be distinguished
from the proposal to have road signs in different languages.
Road signs whether they are in heritage enclaves
or elsewhere are often in the language of the land. Since Bahasa Malaysia
is our sole official language, it is the language that should be used
for official purposes which under article 152(6) of the Federal Constitution
include the activities of local authorities like the Penang City Council.
Putting up road signs in other languages such as Chinese, Tamil or
English conveys the impression that they are also ‘official
languages’, on the same level as Malay.
This in fact diminishes the status of Malay since
the language — unlike all the other languages — has a
special relationship with the land. It is the language that defines
the nation’s identity. It is the language that is most intimately
associated with the history and evolution of what is today Malaysia.
For centuries it has served as a language of inter-ethnic communication
– a lingua franca— within the larger Malay world. Today,
it is perceived as a principal channel for forging solidarity among
Malaysia’s multi-cultural population. It is because of what
Bahasa Malaysia means to the nation that the decision of the Penang
state government has elicited such an adverse reaction from writers,
academics, activists and politicians.
The truth is putting up road signs in Chinese has
been part of the politics of Chinese based political parties for a
few decades. As soon as the Gerakan came to power in Penang in May
1969, party functionaries sought to put up road signs in Chinese.
Because of the Emergency and NOC (National Operations Council) rule,
the plan was abandoned. In the March 2008 Election campaign, the DAP
pledged to put up multi-lingual road signs if it captured the state.
The Gerakan, now in the opposition, taunted the DAP by putting up
six road signs in Chinese in July. Through subtle manipulation of
Georgetown’s heritage status, the DAP is now seeking to prove
to the electorate that it has kept its word.
Communal posturing of this sort is a bane upon ethnic
relations. After 51 years of Merdeka, one would expect DAP and Gerakan
leaders, and indeed, all Malaysians, whatever their political hue
or ethnic affiliation, to possess a more profound understanding of
the foundations of the Malaysian nation. It is because they lack such
a perspective that many of them cannot appreciate what primacy of
Bahasa Malaysia means in the psychological and sociological sense.
Chandra Muzaffar.
28 October 2008
back
to top
By Chandra
Muzaffar
The International Movement for
a Just World (JUST) calls upon the Malaysian government to initiate
a meeting of the Finance Ministers of ASEAN plus 3 (China, Japan and
South Korea) to examine the impact of the global financial crisis
upon the region and to propose concrete measures to protect our people
from the ravages of the crisis.
Government leaders in the region have expressed deep
concern as stock markets in Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Jakarta, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur continue to plummet. The Wall Street
bailout package does not seem to have stemmed the crisis. The danger
of the US economy going into a tailspin and dragging along the rest
of the world is as real as ever.
In this regard, it is important to bear in mind that
Japan and China have invested heavily in US treasury bonds and bills.
Japan holds 590 billion US dollars in US treasury instruments while
China holds 510 billion US dollars. This is due largely to their huge
trade surplus with the US.
Indeed, if the US fails to recover quickly from its
credit crunch crisis, it is predicted that its economy will go into
a deep and long recession which will have disastrous consequences
for exports from Asian countries. This will impact adversely upon
our growth rates and the poorer and more vulnerable sections of our
society will suffer a great deal.
This is why the ASEAN plus 3 economies many of which
have extensive trade ties with the US will have to come up with both
short-term and long-term strategies to mitigate against the consequences
of a prolonged US recession. Becoming less dependent upon the US economy
and encouraging more trade and investment within the ASEAN plus 3
region is one of the important strategies that should be pursued.
It is true that it is a trend that has been getting stronger in the
last ten years. However, much more can be done to generate endogenous
growth within the region especially through enhanced emphasis upon
scientific research in agricultural and industrial development.
Collaborative efforts in these areas could be one
of the foci of the proposed ASEAN plus 3 Finance Ministers meeting.
The meeting could also explore ways and means of maintaining exchange
rate stability, curtailing short-term debts, curbing inflation, ensuring
prudent budgets and reinforcing effective banking systems in the face
of the global financial crisis. Since these were some of the concerns
of the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) of May 2000, ASEAN plus 3 Finance
Ministers might want to give serious attention to strengthening the
CMI as we address the challenges of a volatile global economic environment.
Chandra Muzaffar,
8 October 2008.
J.B.
Jeyaratnam was one of the most committed fighters for human rights
and justice that I have known. He struggled and he persevered with
a sense of dedication and determination which was astounding. It
is this — his determination and his commitment — that
he will long be remembered for.
I first met J.B. at an international human rights conference in
New Delhi about 18 years ago. On some of his visits to Kuala Lumpur,
he would look me up. The last time we met was in the coffee- house
of a KL hotel on the 9th of June 2008. We chatted for almost three
hours.
There was a lot that we shared in common. We were both concerned
about civil and political liberties; about the growing gap between
the have-a-lot and the have-a-little in society; about the negative
aspects of globalisation; about global hegemony and its adverse
consequences for humanity. On certain other issues we held differing
views.
In my conversations with him, I discovered that J.B. was an incorrigible
optimist. He was convinced that a better Singapore, a better ASEAN,
a better world was possible. He dedicated himself to that challenge
— especially the challenge of making his own litle acre on
God’s good earth a better place.Our greatest tribute to this
indefatigable champion of justice would be to continue to work steadfastly
to improve the lives of our fellow human beings.
Chandra Muzaffar
3 October 2008
back
to top
by Kim Sengupta
It was another murder among so many in the bloody conflict
in Afghanistan - a senior police officer gunned down by the Taliban.
But the death of Malalai Kakar this week has removed a brave and dedicated
champion of oppressed women; it has raised the fears of other women
in public life that they too have, in effect, been sentenced to death.
Of five prominent women interviewed three years ago
by The Independent for an article on post-Taliban female emancipation,
three, including Ms Kakar, are dead and a fourth has had to flee after
narrowly escaping assassination in an ambush in which her husband
was killed.
Religious fundamentalists are waging a ruthless campaign
to eliminate women who have taken up high-profile jobs. Parliamentarians,
schoolteachers, civil servants, security officials and women journalists
have been selected for attacks by the jihadists. Countless others
have been maimed and murdered in villages where the vengeful Taliban
have returned to impose the old order.
In the case of Malalai Kakar, the most prominent
policewoman in Afghanistan, an additional “crime” which
sealed her fate was that she was a determined and effective campaigner
for women’s rights. Commander Kakar, 40, knew her work made
her a Taliban target. She led a unit of 10 policewomen specialising
in domestic violence cases. She was uncompromising with suspected
abusers, men who in the past had relied on male police officers to
turn a blind eye.
“I’ve been accused of being rough with
husbands who beat up their wives” she said. “But I’m
angry, we try to apply the law in the right way and the constitution
is supposed to protect women’s rights.”
Kakar liked to cook breakfast for her husband and
six children before going to work, she told me. She would spend a
long time saying her farewell because, she said, she could never be
sure what would happen. Her 15-year-old son was with her when she
was killed last weekend. She carried a pistol under the burqa she
wore to work, so as not to be recognised, before changing into uniform.
But she had no chance to defend herself, or him, against the two motorcycle
assassins.
Like Kakar, Shaima Rezayee was one of those who believed
in a brave new world for Afghan women. After five years of burqa-wearing
under Taliban rule, the bubbly 24-year-old presented a popular music
show called Hop on the independent channel Tolo TV and helped run
schemes to promote women in the media. When I asked for her help in
preparing the article, however, she was already pessimistic. “Things
are not getting better,” she cautioned. “We made some
gains, but there are a lot of people who want to take it all back.
They are not even the Taliban, they are here in Kabul.”
She was having her own problems, the station was
being condemned for allowing her, a female in Western clothes and
make-up to talk freely to men on the programme. Eventually she was
dismissed after pressure from conservative clerics of the National
Ulema Council who accused Tolo of “broadcasting music, naked
dance and foreign films”. In particular, they picked out Shaima’s
programme for criticism. There was no support from the police who
declared that they may not be able to protect her.
Shaima was angry. “The bad days are coming
back, we’ll have to go into exile again”, she said. Soon
afterwards rumours began to appear that she had been killed. Tolo
offered to broadcast an interview. “But they wanted to do it
on radio, not TV,” she laughed. “The religious people
might get offended even if they saw me for five minutes.”
Shaima was gunned down at her home near Kabul’s
diplomatic quarters. Her killers, said the police, appeared to have
been people she had known as they did not have to force their way
into the house.
Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, is the scene
of particular brutality towards women. “It is much worse down
there than it is for us here [in Kabul], you must go down there,”
Shaima had said previously. One woman who worked tirelessly for women
in Kandahar was Safia Amajan, 65, who stayed behind during the dark
days of Taliban rule to teach girls in lessons held in secret. After
the US-led invasion of 2001, she volunteered to work for the new government
with great success, opening schools and workshops where at least 1,000
women learned to make and sell their goods at the market.
Amajan, or “dear aunt” as the girls she
taught called her, survived the Taliban by learning the Koran by heart.
But she was always independent, refusing a marriage arranged by her
father and then eventually choosing her own husband, an educated and
wholly supportive colonel in the army.
The couple lived on the outskirts of Kandahar, where
she described, without any drama, the struggle of life for women under
the Taliban. “Those of us who are around now are very lucky,”
she said. “There were others, very brave, who also tried to
make things better for young girls through education and teaching
them skills. They were caught and they suffered.”
Amajan was killed in September 2006. Her husband
had walked her to the main road where she was to be picked up by a
taxi to be taken to work. Two young men approached on a motorcycle
and one of them opened fire with a Kalashnikov. A Taliban commander,
Mullah Hayat Khan, announced that she had been “executed”
for defying orders to stop working.
I met the two men arrested for her murder last year
at the Sarposa prison in Kandahar. They were in their early 20s, dishevelled
and craven, repeatedly claiming that they were in danger from their
own side as well as the authorities. They had killed Safia, they said,
in return for $5,000 offered by a mullah in Pakistan. The men were
caught when the mullah wanted proof that they had carried out their
task and they attempted, by night, to dig up the body for a lock of
hair.
Kakar had long been a friend of Amajan and threw
herself into the hunt for her killers. “They would not have
been caught if they had not tried to disturb Safia’s body,”
she said at her office in the central police station. “I do
not trust myself to be in the same cell as those men. They murdered
someone who was old enough to be their grandmother. They murdered
someone who has done so much for Kandaharis... so much for Afghanistan.”
“She was this wonderful person we heard about
growing up in Kandahar,” she said. “I made a point of
meeting her and I took guidance from her.”
Amajan and Kakar used to work closely with a woman
MP in Kandahar, Zarghuna Kakar (no relation). Ms Kakar, 36, has now
fled her home after she and her family were attacked in a market.
Her husband, Mohammed Nasir, was killed in the attack.
Before the shooting, Ms Kakar had repeatedly pleaded
for security. At one point she turned in desperation to Ahmed Wali
Karzai, the brother of the Afghan President and a prominent figure
in Kandahar. “He told me there was nothing he could do,”
she recalled. “He also said that I should have thought about
what may happen before I stood for election. But it was his brother,
the Americans and the British who told us that we women should get
involved in political life. Of course, now I wish I hadn’t.
If only I knew what would happen.”
Ms Kakar fled to Kabul with her family. We met in
a cold, dark hotel room. She worries constantly about the dangers.
“I eventually managed to meet President Karzai. He told me to
go back to Kandahar and he would make sure the governor provided us
with bodyguards. But the governor has no men to spare.” The
lack of official protection for women from either the Afghan government
or Western forces is a source of bitter complaint among those who
now find themselves under threat from Islamist zealots.
Now, with the Taliban mounting audacious attacks
just on the outskirts of Kabul and President Karzai’s government
engaged in negotiations with the Taliban and other Islamist groups,
women who have the means to get away are planning possible escape
routes. Foreign embassies report an increase in visa applications
from educated, professional women.
Captain Jamilla Mujahid Barzai is staying on with
Kandahar police to continue her murdered boss’s work. She left
the police force after witnessing an infamous Taliban execution of
a woman at Kabul’s football stadium, a judicial killing which
was filmed and shown later around the world as an example of the savagery
of the time. “I knew the prisoner, I shall never forget the
way she died... There was nothing I could do, so I left the police.
It is most important that now women try to get to positions of power
to stop things like that happening again. It is dangerous. But we
cannot go back to those days again.”
3 October 2008
Source: The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/women-who-took-on-the-taliban-ndash-and-lost-949723.html
back
to top
by Mairead Maguire
On 28th October, 2008, the Free Gaza Movement set
sail in SS Dignity from Larnaca, Cyprus, for Gaza. On board were
27 Internationals from 13 countries, including Dr. Mustafa Barghouti,
a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, five physicians,
human rights lawyers, etc.,
On this the second boat journey into Gaza the siege-breakers brought
with them 6 cubic meters of medicine, and their hope that by going
to Gaza across the sea (only the second boat to do so in over 41
years) they would give hope to the people of Gaza and that the outside
world would break its silence to the tragedy of Gaza’s suffering
and act to get the siege lifted.
It’s hard to image that in the 2lst century a country can
be so cut off from the outside world.
Sixteen months ago, when Gazans voted Hamas in free and fair elections,
the reaction of Israel was not to open up dialogue with the elected
representatives (as they eventually must do)but to put in place
a policy of collective punishment of the entire population, which
has led to a humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel said it was ending the occupation of Gaza, but in truth
it maintained it by closing all border entrances and isolating the
Gazans from the entire world.
Gaza is like an open air prison with Israel holding the keys but
its worse, at least in prison, the inmates are fed and taken care
of.
The people of Gaza are drinking polluted water and have not enough
food and medicines and materials for existence – and in the
words of one Gazan ‘we are slowly choking to death with this
siege’..
Before we sailed to Gaza the Israeli Government, warned we would
not be allowed to sail into Gaza.
However, we were determined to do so and just 20 miles off the
coast of Gaza, held our breath as two Israeli navy gunboats stalked
us but took no action.
Common sense had prevailed – hopefully a sign for the future
that in the final analysis those in power in Israel will realize
that dialogue not gunboats and F-16s, is the only way to solve this
too long and painful Palestinian occupation.
We arrived in Gaza exhausted and sea-sick. We were met by dozens
of Palestinian heavily armed police and though, before leaving Gaza,
I had requested not to be so guarded, we were informed that the
Hamas Government wanted to ensure our safety, and throughout the
entire 4 day visit we were escorted by armed Palestinian police.
Our reception by the people of Gaza was deeply moving. Their gratitude
to The Free Gaza Movement was shown by their great warmth and hospitality.
They were particularly grateful that Dr. Barghouti had come from
West Bank, and that Gideon Spiro an Israeli from Tel Aviv, had arrived
with the boat. (On his way home through the Erez crossing he was
arrested by Israeli Authorities, held overnight and charged with
illegally entering Gaza).
The following 4 days were filled with events ranging from pure
joy (like the concert with the children singing and one of our group
an Italian opera singer holding everyone in awe by the magic of
his voice) to events of deep sadness such as our visit to Shifa
hospital.
Here the doctors explained they have shortage of basic medicines,
no parts for machines as they are blocked by Israel, and we met
patients dying from cancer and preventable diseases. If only the
medicines and equipment were available.
A half built new hospital stands slowing disintegrating, as cement
and wood and basic materials are not allowed into the Gaza Strip
for over 16 months now and everything is slowing falling apart.
We visited next day the airport which had been bombed from the
air and from land by Israeli tanks over two years ago. We visited
the electricity plant and saw the huge generators, bombed by Israel
and still not repaired due to shortage of parts and a legal debate
as to who is responsible to repair.
This Israeli air bombing of the electricity plant means it is down
to only 50% capacity, so each day the electricity goes off for 7/8
hours at a time, including in hospitals.
The sewerage plant too has been damaged and Israel will not allow
the pipes in to replace those destroyed, so raw sewerage is pumped
into the sea every day, causing an environmental disaster waiting
to explode.
In Jabalia there have been heavy rains which washed away the road,
exposing broken sewerage pipes. A pool of raw sewerage filled the
street and the children played oblivious to the danger of disease
.
We visited homes flooded by rain and sewerage whose owners had
to flee and are now living with relatives in already overcrowded
poverty stricken homes.
There is dreadful poverty in this area. The people have nothing,
many hungry, and malnutrition at 80%. Still the international community
remains silent as the Israeli Government, collectively punish one
and a half million people, 50% under 21 years of age.
Some of our human rights colleagues went out on the boats with
the Gazan fishermen.
They were attacked by Israeli navy boats who bombarded the boats
with water canons and fired live ammunition over the bow of the
fishing boats. Many fishermen have been shot dead by the Israeli
navy simply trying to catch fish 6 miles from shore to feed their
families.
The following days we were received by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh who announced we would be given Palestinian passports, and
presented the Free Gaza Movement with a gift.
There is a real desire here for peace, people have suffered enough,
but they want a just peace, an end to occupation, a right to determine
their children’s future.
The next day the Prime Minister announced the release of Fatah
prisoners and a promise there would be no more political arrests.
(They awaited response from President Abbas regarding Hamas prisoners
they hold).
Later that evening in the School of the Holy Family, we had the
privilege of witnessing over 100 politicians, representing all political
parties, including Fatah and Hamas pledge to working for Palestinian
national unity and promising to send their leaders to attend the
National Unity Conference in Cairo early November.
Dr. Barghouti (a true man of peace) addressed his political colleagues
whom he had not met for two and a half years, due to the closure
and separation of Gaza Strip from West Bank.(An apartheid policy
of Israel dividing the Palestinian people into Bantustans and making
the possibility of a viable Palestinian State very difficult).
This meeting took place under the watchful gaze of a huge wall
picture of President Arafat. I was invited to address the political
parties and I supported their non-violent campaign for an end to
Occupation, and a Free Palestine. I also encouraged the national
unity of Palestinians reminding them ‘in Palestinian unity
there is strength, divided you will be conquered’.
I also appealed to them to ‘keep your struggle non-violent
and the world will support you.’
The next day we visited the Hamas controlled Palestinian Parliament.
The Speaker of the Parliament thanked the Free Gaza Movement. He
spoke of the suffering of the Palestinians under siege and occupation
and paid tribute to the suffering of the Palestinian political prisoners
(over 40 elected Hamas politicians now in Israeli jails).
I addressed the Parliament speaking of the need for the release
of political prisoners and made an appeal for the release of Col.
Gilad Shalit, the Israeli Corporal a captive in Gaza for almost
two years now.
There are a total of ll,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails,
including parliamentarians, sick, disabled, women and children,
and before leaving Gaza I appealed for the release of Palestinian
political prisoners – immediately to be released children,
women, sick, those under administrative detention, and elected parliamentarians).
I stressed the need to keep the struggle non-violent and spoke
of dialogue, forgiveness and reconciliation and lessons learned
in our own peace process in Northern Ireland.
We also visited the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt
which remains closed, cutting Gazans off from their families and
friends just down the road. One of the Palestinian women (who had
flown from Jerusalem to Cyprus and come on the boat because she
had no other way to get to Gaza) banged on the Egyptian gate crying
‘open up I want to get to my family’.
Egypt too plays its part in cutting off completely from the world
the people of Gaza from their loved ones (and not to be able to
touch those you love is the cruelest form of torture). Not even
letters or newspapers get into Gaza.The Gazans are deprived of basic
needs of medicine, food, materials to rebuild their infrastructure
purposely bombed by Israeli jets (paid for by American taxpayers
money - £10 million dollars a day).
The Palestinians in a desperate attempt to feed their families
or escape this open air prison, are digging dozens of underground
tunnels from Gaza to Egypt, but on the day we left 3 men were killed
and others still missing as the soft sand collapsed on them.
Thousands of Palestinian women are cut off from their husbands
in the West Bank, and 700 students who have university places in
outside countries, are not allowed out of Gaza to continue their
education.
The greatest tragedy to all this is that international governments
and the Western media in particular remain silent to this slow destruction
of the Palestinian people by policies of Israel which break the
Geneva Convention and Apartheid Convention.
Yet, in leaving Gaza I felt great hope.
Hope at the tremendous resilience of the Palestinian people.
One of our great Irish poets W.B.Yeats once wrote ‘too long
a sacrifice makes a stone of the heart’ but then a prayer
of the Irish also says ‘take away our hearts of stone and
give us hearts of love’.
In my journeys to Israel and Palestine, and in Gaza, I found many
hearts of love.
One Palestinian man asked me to carry his message to the world
and it is:
‘We love our Israeli brothers, we have lived with them, we
want to, but we do not believe the Israeli Government wants peace
as their policies are destroying the Palestinian people’.
Another request from a Palestinian father to some of our group
will remain with us: ‘if I give you some money will you bring
in on the next boat some milk for my children, we have none’
I believe there is great hope for peace in the Middle East, as
this is a political problem with a political solution, and the Israeli
Government, and the USA, with real political will can solve this
historical conflict whose roots are in the Occupation.
We recognize the State of Israel and its need for security.
We recognize there is a deep fear of ethnic annihilation amongst
many Israelis, but we as the human family must all learn to deal
with our fears non-violently, and realize that our best hope for
human security is not in occupation and siege, but in reaching out
to make justice and in transforming our enemy into our friend.
Salaam Palestine, Shalom Israel.
4 November 2008
Ms Mairead Maquire is a Nobel Peace Laureate. She is also a memeber
of JUST’s International Advisory Panel (IAP). She can be contacted
at
http://www.peacepeople.com
back
to top
By
Abukar Arman
While each has its distinctive history; like anti-semitism
and racism, Islamophobia is a real phenomenon that cultivates hate
among communities, stereotypes a whole group for the acts of a few,
and justifies transgression against the innocent. And like the rest,
Islamophobia was developed and is fostered by special interest groups
who often have access to power in order to reach a political, social,
or an economic end.
With few exceptions, gone are the days when the perpetrators of
hate would march with banners explicitly expressing their bigoted
perceptions and attitudes. However, that is hardly an indication
that the phenomenon has seized to exist.
Today, hate speech and propaganda are often craftily camouflaged
as talk radio punditry, political lampooning, speeches, or political
infomercial.
Last year, in a bizarre outburst of bigotry that makes Islophobes
such as David Horowitz, Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer objective
intellectuals, radio talk show host Michael Savage of the Savage
Nation had this ranting and raving to share with his audience: “I’m
not gonna put my wife in a hijab. And I’m not gonna put my
daughter in a burqa. And I’m not gettin on my all-fours and
braying to Mecca. And you could drop dead if you don’t like
it.”
Spewing his hate via hundreds of the over 1200 radio stations owned
by notoriously Islamophobic corporation Clear Channel, he continued
his provocative diatribe: “You can shove it up your pipe.
I don’t wanna hear anymore about Islam. I don’t wanna
hear one more word about Islam. Take your religion and shove it
up your behind. I’m sick of you.”
Along the same path, albeit more artistically, the July 2008 issue
of the New Yorker Magazine had on its front page a political caricature
of Barak and Michelle Obama. The couple is standing in the middle
of the Oval Office. Obama is wearing a traditional Islamic dress
with turban and sandals. He is approvingly fist-bumping with a militant
looking Michelle as his sinister left eye gazes away. Michelle is
wearing Angela Davis style afro and a guerilla fatigue with an M-16
hanging from her back. Looking over them is an Africa-American looking
picture of Usama Bin Laden…hanging over the fire place where
the American flag is set on flames.
Then came September 4, 2008— the Republican Convention —where
the merchants of fear and paranoia found their ideal platform. Inadvertently
or otherwise, the underlying theme seemed to be to broaden the definition
of the enemy from a cult-like Al-Qaeda to a much broader indeed
more fluid definition that indicts all those who practise Islam
as suspect or worse.
Rudolph Guiliani, the former New York City Mayor, condemned the
democrats for being “politically correct” and avoiding
the use of the term ‘Islamic terrorism’” to describe
the enemy.
Taking the politically synthesized Anti-Islamic mantra to the next
level by directly speaking to the race-conscious voters, former
congressional leader Dick Army, who now leads one of the most powerful
lobby groups in Washington, had this to say. Barack Obama’s
“funny name” could “give people concerns that
he could be or has been too much influenced by Muslims, which is
a great threat now.” Obama is Christian.
It is a shame that the media is less interested in what Mr. Army
and others who routinely use more provocative and broadly condemning
terms such as “Islamo-fascism,” “Islamic terrorism,”
and “Jihadism” to describe the enemy send to the 7 million
Muslims in United States and 1.2 billion around the world.
Last week, many localities around the US were hit by a new “swift-boating”
campaign. This one, targeting swing states, is aimed to induce paranoia
by distributing “28 million DVDs” of the propaganda
film Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.
The film, like any Goebbelian piece of propaganda, connivingly
exploits the human tendency to surrender their capacity to think
critically when their emotions are stirred or fear is instilled
in their hearts. The film does this successfully as it is made of
selective footages from various parts of the world of individuals
expressing hate, training, and committing acts of terror and the
bloody scenes of their crimes. It is a dangerously effective way
of collectively demonizing Muslims as the so called experts featured
in the film use all the aforementioned hot button terminologies
to describe the terrorists and interlink all these cases with their
subjective narrative.
This latest campaign is carried out by an obscure New York based
group named The Clarion Fund whose funders are not known.
In pursuit of their goal to effectively disseminate the DVDs and
secure subliminal legitimacy, this group has selectively targeted
the newspaper distribution apparatuses of various cities in critical
states. Here in central Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch has distributed
10,000 copies of the DVDs through its most widely read issue- the
Sunday Dispatch. The same was done by the New York Times, the Miami
Herald and a host of other newspapers.
Venomous hyperbole aimed to stir fear and paranoia and indict all
Muslims continues despite the Department of Homeland Security Office
for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties’ conclusion that “Words
matter” and its recommendation that US officials and representatives
should “…avoid inflating the religious bases and glamorous
appeal of the extremists’ ideology.” According to a
memo from the said department, the terminologies used should depict
the terrorists as the dangerous cult leaders they are.
October 2008
Abukar Arman is a freelance writer who lives in
Ohio. He writes about Islam, Somalia and US foreign policy.
back
to top
After two days of dialogue and discussion of Catholic
and Islamic teachings, we as an interfaith gathering of scholars
and students found solid common ground and joint concerns for the
welfare of humanity as follows:
Humanity stands in relation to the rest of creation differently
from all other creatures and things. (Genesis 2:7) (Qur’an,
2:31; 17:70; 16:78; 55:3-4) Blessed and burdened by a contemplative
intelligence embracing both mind and moral discernment, each human
person has a destiny shaped by free will and intentional action.
(Compendium 114, 131) (Qur’an, 6:161-164; 18:46; 33:71; 84:6;
103:3) Each individual is called to work and service in response
to that which gives purpose. (Genesis 9:1; Laborem Exercens) (Qur’an,
2:30; 6:165; 11:61; 51:56-57) The good things that are and can be
done in such service can serve as the basis for collaboration in
seeking better lives for all human persons everywhere.
Humanity, by reason of its creation, serves a purpose. Human persons
were endowed with stewardship capacities to live and die in the
midst of an unfinished work started but not yet finished by the
Creator of all the heavens and the earth and everything therein.
(Genesis 9:1; Laborem Exercens, Centesimus Annus 32) (Qur’an,
2:30; 6: 165; 11: 61; 35: 39)
Human persons so share in the powers and hopes of the Creator,
specially endowed to live by the loving gift of His spirit within
them, that each human person has a profound association with dignity,
an association that cannot be expunged or terminated. (Qur’an,
38: 82-83; 7:16-18; 4:117-120)
This dignity universally elevates the human person and gives moral
direction to our lives. We are called to honor that dignity within
ourselves and within others.
But pride in self, contumacious stubbornness, envy and fear, inhabit
the human mind and heart as well, giving rise to thoughts and acts
in derogation of our own dignity and that of others. (Centesimus
Annus, 17) (Qur’an, 2:204-206; 10:75; 20:78-79; 26:18-29;
28:38-41 & 76-78; 97:6-13) In accepting these tendencies, we
elevate the merely human over the divine and put ourselves at odds
with the well-being of creation and the end to which we are called
by our Creator, which is his service and not our own.
Embracing human dignity has consequences. The least among us is
worthy and may claim rights and powers to act in accordance with
reason and conscience. (Matthew 25; Compendium 186, 189; Centesimus
Annus 13, 58) (Qur’an, 2:110, 177, 254, 261-262, 265-268,
273-278; 9:60, 57:7; 71; 24;55-56; 27:3; 58:12-13) We should act
so that all in the boat will arrive safely in port. The dignity
of others around us –both near and far –calls us to
moral relationships of solidarity and justice with them. (Compendium
193) (Qur’an, 4:58, 127; 5:8; 6:152; 16:76, 90; 49:9; 60:8)
Justice demands a role for them; they too may aspire to right action
and a share in the service of the Creator. (Centesimus Annus 17)
(Qur’an, 5:8; 6:152; 16:76, 90; 49:9; 60:8)
Since the source of our dignity is a mission of service, our talents,
our wealth, our powers are held in trust for a larger good. (Compendium
174, 177) (Qur’an, 5:48; 33:72; 57:7) We are most correctly
stewards in all that we do. (Compendium 177) (Qur’an, 6:165;
43:32) Our stewardship over self is most necessary to prevent unfaithful
disruption of the moral sense. Especially our share of material
wealth comes with responsibilities to those around us; we have benefited
from those who have gone before and need to provide for those who
will come after. (Centesimus Annus chapter 4) (Qur’an, 43:32;
24:33; 59:7)
Living in concert with the demands of human dignity is a work of
dedication and service; it is neither idle play nor selfish indulgence.
(Qur’an, 2:25, 82, 277; 3:57; 4:57, 122; 5:9; 7:42; 10:9;
13:29; 18:30, etc.) Work opens the path to experience of our own
dignity and to our ability to honor the dignity of others. Work
is relational and so deeply moral. Work challenges us to go beyond
the comfortable and the accustomed; work is a struggle for meaning
and the achievement of human dignity in the eyes of our Creator.
(Laborem Exercens) (Qur’an, 9:205; 84:6; 90:4; 99:7-8) Work
without faith, therefore, can be mean and selfish. Work with faith,
however, brings us to our proper stewardship and is not disconnected
from our salvation hopes and possibilities. (James 2:17) (Qur’an,
2:25, 82, 277; 3:57; 4:57, 122; 5:9 etc.)
Work expresses our free will and our choices as to the application
of our dignified powers and thoughts. In using freedom, we open
ourselves to the possibility of work.
Moreover, faith alone without works lacks substance and falls short
of our stewardship responsibilities within creation.
Yet the dimension of faith –revealed in our understanding
of morality, our capacity for ethics, our upholding of social standards
–calls us to work as we apply ourselves to the challenges
of living in the created world. (Laborem Exercens 6) (Qur’an,
2:25, 82, 277; 3:57; 4:57, 122; 5:9; 95:6; 103:1-3 etc.)
Our potential and capacity for work and for achievement of our
proper dignity in the world come from our family. Family gave us
life and family gave us identity and our first experiences of solidarity.
The calling of men and women in family, the giving of life as our
Creator gave life to us, sustains through time human hopes and human
responsibilities to our Creator. (Compendium, chapter 5) (Qur’an,
4:1; 6:98; 7:189; 30:21)
The dignity of each human person, no matter to what degree realized
by such person, ties us all in one inter-connected destiny within
creation. The spark of dignity draws forth compassion, which embodies
the loving kindness and mercy of the Creator who seeks a universal
benefit, making no invidious and destructive distinctions within
the human family which is one from the perspective of its role and
purpose in the world. (Compendium chapter 3) (Qur’an, 2:213;
4:1; 10:19)
Human dignity drives out chauvinisms of all kinds. Where man is
wolf to man, it is man’s doing and not our Creator’s
responsibility or intent. No racism or other dream of sectarian
or ethnic superiority can stand before the fact of universal human
dignity. (Compendium, chapter 3) (Qur’an; 2:213; 4:1; 10:19)
And yet, we human persons, not fully possessed of Godlike mercy
and justice, do each other harm in many ways. We stand in need of
guidance and teaching. (Qur’an, 2:38; 3:3-4; 6:71 & 88-90;
7:100; 17:97; 39:37; 67:1-3; 96:1-3 etc.) All teachings that help
us overcome our limitations of pride are a blessing to creation
and fulfill the will of our Creator. (Compendium, chapter 2) (Qur’an,
79:37-41; 96:6-14)
Such beliefs and practices –such a binding to each other
and to the transcendent, such a way of life –are to be admired
and emulated. (Qur’an, 6:162-163; 8:24; 30:30) That which
derogates from such a working out of faith in the world is as dangerous
to our dignity as is a sickness compromising our health.
Teachings are most needed in a human community overcome by material
concerns and secular suspicions of religion. (Laborem Exercens,
7; Centesimus Annus 36, 37, 41) (Qur’an, 3:14; 18:32-38; 30:41;
57:20; 102:1) Where religiosity, however, devours our capacity for
having dignity of self and respecting the dignity of others, such
conformity to sectarian biases turn us away from our highest and
best nature. (Mathew 23:23; Compendium 144, 153) (Qur’an,
49:11-12)
We recognize that gratitude is due to our Creator as well as praise
for the opportunity we have been given to serve and to enhance the
meaning of our lives. Cultivating both the sense of service and
acts of service within ourselves and among all peoples will bring
together the human family in mutual respect, cooperation, with peace
and justice in all the world.
Conveners of the Dialogue and co-authors of the above Statement:
Ibrahim Mohamed Zein, Dean of the International Institute of Islamic
Thought and Civilization, International Islamic University Malaysia
Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, former Archbishop of Washington, DC
Prof. Abdullah Al-Ahsan, International Islamic University Malaysia
Stephen B. Young, Global Executive Director, The Caux Round Table.
back
to top
|
