Clipmarks | Gul Agha's clips

Paradoxical Hawks on Afghanistan

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:47:34 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

These hawks, all demanding that Obama act on McChrystal’s proposals immediately, do not seem to have read his strategy assessment for Afghanistan

If they had, they’d discover that the whole thrust of his counterinsurgency pitch is to befriend and win the support of the Afghan population — i.e., Muslims.

McChrystal’s most vehement partisans don’t trust American Muslims, let alone those of the Taliban

If, as the right has it, our Army cannot be trusted to recognize a Hasan in its own ranks, then how will it figure out who the “good” Muslims will be as we try to build a “stable” state (whatever “stable” means) in a country that has never had a functioning central government? If our troops can’t be protected from seemingly friendly Muslim American brethren in Killeen, Tex., what are the odds of survival for the 40,000 more troops the hawks want to deploy to Kabul and sinkholes beyond?

Tags: usa, afghanistan, terrorism

Kali Worshippers to "Sacrifice" Tens of Thousands

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:01:36 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.myrepublica.com

BIRGUNJ, Nov 14: Despite vehement protests from national and international activists against the brutal practice of sacrificing animals, it is business as usual in Bariyarpur, Bara. The preparations for the Gadhimai festival have almost completed. And thousands of animals are likely to get slaughtered during the festival which falls on November 24 and 25.

Chief priest of Gadhimai Mangal Chaudhari, on the other hand, has reiterated the sacrificial offerings will be made to avoid confrontation with the locals. He opined that the age-old practice should not be stopped at once but should be gotten rid of gradually by raising awareness.

Undeterred by protests, however, chief priest Chaudhari, has claimed that more than 20,000 buffaloes would be sacrificed on November 24, while as many goats, pigeons and ducks would be offered the next day.

Tags: animal rights, hinduism, nepal

Rabbi Carlebach Inspires “Return Again” at Sufi Camp

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:58:32 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.forward.com

Warshauer’s exploration of the shofar mirrors her own journey through Judaism. Raised in North Carolina in a Reform Jewish home, she experimented with Eastern religions and meditation. She found comfort in the universal teachings of Sufism, which focuses on the healing vibrations of sound. At a Sufi music camp, she encountered a melody by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, “Return Again,” which motivated her to return to her own tradition. “I had never heard of Carlebach,” Warshauer said. Now, she said, she “sees the world through Jewish eyes. That’s the spiritual door for me. Music is the way I can communicate the wisdom of our tradition both for Jews and non-Jews. I can do that in an honest and enriching way because it is my tradition, I haven’t borrowed it.”

Tags: sufism, judaism, music

The Similing Way..

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:49:43 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: newsweek.washingtonpost.com

Sufism, generally referred to as the mystical or "inner" dimension of Islam, which tends to put a focus on one's individual relation to God through guidance from a spiritual elder, has been around almost since the beginning of the religion. It is worldwide.

Somehow, for all of my stuttering, stammering, rationalizing, sometimes authentic, mostly sinful, always perplexed approach to faith, it has been these austere Sufis, with their stentorian obeisance to a higher principle, their complete surrender to the authority of a saintly figure, their often pre-modern outlook, who have been most inclined to embrace me without asking questions. They retain a view towards chaos of the world that is not merely hopeful, but outright cheerful, a smile stretched eternally onto the face of the faith. For all of us melancholics and obsessives and loners and miscreants, with our spiritual gastroenteritis and Nietzschean dyspepsia, the existence of the Sufis is thoroughly soothing, even if we never join

Tags: sufism, religion, usa

The World's First Green City

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:26:28 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.ft.com

one city that shouldn’t have to worry about impending ecological disaster it is Abu Dhabi. It holds massive reserves of oil, about 8 per cent of what’s left

It is also the biggest per capita consumer of fuel, massively reliant on cars, power-hungry desalination and air-conditioning. You would have to wonder what damage global warming could possibly inflict on Abu Dhabi. It already seems a vision of the future.

Yet it is here that the world’s first serious eco-city is being built

The city is walled, a device to define its edges and act against sprawl

the streets are not the broad avenues of the city but tight, shady alleys; there are no skyscrapers

there is a central open-air souk, an antidote to the ubiquitous mall. The courtyards and shops are shaded by screens based on the traditional mashrabiyas, the delicate filigree meshes

traditional wind-scoops that bring a breeze into the heart of the dwelling.

most incredibly of all in this culture wedded to the car, the roads are all pedestrian

Tags: environment, global warming, arabia

A Greener Ireland

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:57:05 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.greenpartywatch.org

Among the other concessions Greens won are: a carbon tax to be introduced in 2010; charges for water use (free basic allowance for each household, with charges for excess use); heavy investment in the green economy; no university fees; more primary and secondary school teachers; a national climate change adaptation strategy; an end to corporate donations to politicians and parties; 2:1 spending ratio on public transit vs. roads; a civil partnership bill and legal recognition of transsexuals; and major animal rights victories including a ban on hare coursing and stag hunting, and a 3-year phase-out of fur farming. See this article119 for a thorough look at what the Greens got from the revised program for government.

Tags: animal rights, environment, ireland

Ground Zero: Taliban gone but Swat Valley in ruins

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:59:00 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

NAZARABAD, Pakistan — The fighting is over and the villagers have returned, but life here remains suspended. Villagers’ buffaloes are gone, and their harvests are spoiled. Power is still out in many areas. Schools, blown up by the Taliban, lay in heaps. Even the bricks have been sold.

more than two months after the end of active combat, with winter fast approaching, reconstruction has yet to begin

Pakistan’s government says it is tending to the needs of the people of Swat

But money for reconstruction in this battered area is still almost nonexistent, officials say, and aid organizations, encumbered by security rules, have been slow to respond.

Clip Source: graphics8.nytimes.com

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

“We told them, ‘The people are so poor and weak, please don’t destroy this school,’ ” said Akbar Khan, the principal.

Now students sit on small stacks of bricks, perched like birds in a strange new outdoor classroom. The girls here still do not go to school at all — their school was never rebuilt after it was destroyed

Tags: pakistan, afghanistan, terrorism, usa

The Taliban's Mentors..

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:34:14 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Thomas E. Gouttierre, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, said that “as a symbolic figure, Omar is a centrifugal force for the Taliban,” playing a similar role to that of Osama bin Laden in Al Qaeda. But Dr. Gouttierre credits the Taliban’s success not to any military genius on the part of Mullah Omar but to more worldly advisers from Pakistan’s intelligence service and Al Qaeda.

Mullah Omar heads the Taliban’s Rahbari Shura, or leadership council, often called the Quetta Shura since it relocated to the Pakistani city in 2002. The shura, consisting of the Taliban commanders, “operates like the politburo of a communist party,” setting broad strategy, said Mr. Yusufzai, the Pakistani journalist. General McChrystal wrote in his assessment that the shura “conducts a formal campaign review each winter, after which Mullah Omar announces his guidance and intent for the coming year.”

Tags: pakistan, afghanistan, terrorism, afpak, usa

Back to One Party Dominance in India?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:07:35 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

But in the past, long periods of virtually unchallenged Congress rule have not been particularly kind to India. It is no coincidence, analysts say, that India’s rise as a global economic powerhouse really took off as the B.J.P. became a viable national alternative to Congress.

In a speech to the party faithful after the electoral defeat, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate for prime minister, the octogenarian L.K. Advani63, was almost valedictory, saying that his party, whatever its failures, had broken the Congress’s lock on national power.

“In the last two decades the B.J.P. has succeeded in transforming this single dominant party polity into a bipolar polity,” he said.

“We focused on negatives when the people wanted a positive, superior agenda for governance and development,” he said. “People want India to grow steadily on this path, with no disturbances and no turmoil.”

Tags: india, politics

Just give us the money...

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:29:51 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha
clipper's remarks: The thugs want the money but don't want to reform. These elites making noise are the ones who take bundles of American aid, eat the funds in corruption, still spout anti-American rhetoric, and support the Taliban while suppressing democracy and human rights of smaller nations like the Sindhis.

Let's hope President Obama sticks to his guns and follows through with trying to enforce it. He may have to then finally give up this strategy and face the fact that he will not get honest cooperation out of Pakistan and its brutal, fanatic and dangerous military.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

An aid package of $1.5 billion a year for the next five years passed by Congress last week67 asks Pakistan to cease supporting terrorist groups on its soil and to ensure that the military does not interfere with civilian politics. President Asif Ali Zardari68, whose association with the United States has added to his unpopularity, agreed to the stipulations in the aid package.

But many here, especially in the powerful army, object to the conditions as interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs, and they are interpreting the larger American footprint in more sinister ways.

The concerns are serious enough that last month a local company hired by DynCorp to provide Pakistani men to be trained as security guards for American diplomats was raided by the Islamabad police. The owner of the company, the Inter-Risk Security Company, Capt. Syed Ali Ja Zaidi, was later arrested.

The action against Inter-Risk, apparently intended to cripple the DynCorp program

Tags: pakistan, usa, terrorism, human rights, democracy

Where Did the American Aid Go?

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:34:57 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Now the scope and longevity of the misuse is becoming clear: Between 2002 and 2008, while al-Qaida regrouped, only $500 million of the $6.6 billion in American aid actually made it to the Pakistani military, two army generals tell The Associated Press.

The details on misuse of American aid come as Washington again promises Pakistan money. Legislation to triple general aid to Pakistan cleared Congress last week. The legislation also authorizes "such sums as are necessary" for military assistance to Pakistan, upon several conditions. The conditions include certification that Pakistan is cooperating in stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons, that Pakistan is making a sustained commitment to combating terrorist groups and that Pakistan security forces are not subverting the country's political or judicial processes.

But the U.S. still can't follow what happens to the money it doles out.

"We don't have a mechanism for tracking the money after we have given it to them,"

Tags: pakistan, afghanistan, war on terror, bush, usa

'India to Help Cut US Health Care Costs'

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:08:27 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

G.E. Chief Sees India Helping Cut Costs of U.S. Health Care

NEW DELHI — India will play a significant role in reducing health care costs in the United States as the Asian nation’s health care market expands, General Electric60’s chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt61, predicted here on Friday.

The Indian health care industry is “on the verge of substantial growth,” Mr. Immelt said. Health care products and services developed cheaply here will be exported to Western markets, cutting prices there, he said.

Many analysts and health care executives say they share Mr. Immelt’s belief that innovations from emerging markets, particularly India, could lead to big changes in the United States health care system. Already, American health care companies are cutting costs by outsourcing services to India like reading X-rays or scheduling nursing visits.

Tags: healthcare, usa, india

Women Paralyzed by Hamburger

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:35:49 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.

Then her diarrhea62 turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures63 knocked her unconscious. The convulsions64 grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma65 for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed.

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced66 to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007.

Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies.

Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone

Tags: meat, health, bacteria, usa

Swiss give asylum to couple threatened with Honor Killing

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:33:58 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.dailytimes.com.pk

SHC disposes of Saira Jatoi case: Couple get asylum in Switzerland

KARACHI: A petition filed by a couple declared karo kari and rescued by the police just before they were about to be killed, was disposed of on Friday by a division bench of the Sindh High Court after the counsel for the petitioners stated that the couple have been granted asylum in Switzerland due to the efforts of an NGO.

Earlier, Justice (retd) Shaiq Usmani told the bench comprising Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Rukhsana Ahmed Malik that both Saira Jatoi and her husband Ismail Soomro would soon leave the country.

Advocate Muhammad Ashraf Kazi, who was representing the Sindh inspector general of police, Karachi CCPO and others, assured the court that the couple will be given protection and escort till the airport and arrangements will be made at Islamabad as well to ensure their safe journey from Pakistan.

Tags: pakistan, switzerland, women, human rights

Pakistan's Military Chief Insists on Taliban Safe-Havens

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:40:36 GMT

clipped by: Gul Agha

Clip Source: www.longwarjournal.org

General Ashfaq Kiyani, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, has weighed in on the debate over the potential for the US air campaign against the Taliban and al Qaeda to expand into Baluchistan province, according to the Daily Times18. During a meeting of the Tripartite Commission, Kiyani reportedly warned the US against conducting strikes in the province.

Last week, US military and intelligence officials told me that an expansion of the US air campaign into Baluchistan would likely lead to an internal revolt19 in the Pakistani military. General Kiyani knows the impact a wide-reaching US air campaign would have on his military.

Kiyani's statements come as Anne Patterson, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, said that the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban command led by Mullah Omar, has risen to the top of the US target list. But Pakistan has refused to operate against the Quetta Shura as it is hedging its bets that the Taliban will return to power in Afghanistan.

Tags: pakistan, taliban, afghanistan, usa