IS ISRAEL PAINTING ITSELF INTO A CORNER?

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Is Israel Painting Itself into a Corner?

Hameed Abdul Karim

No amount of spin the hasbara types in Israel put on the news can redeem the ‘Jewish’ state from international opprobrium. This was clearly evident in the UNESCO vote where no less than 107 countries voted in favour of Palestine‘s inclusion into the world body.  Even France, which is close ally of Israel, couldn’t help voting in favour of the Palestinians, much to the annoyance of Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama who castigated Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy at the G20 Summit for his insolence in towing a line the empire did not support. UK couldn’t summon the courage to defy the empire so it quietly abstained from voting as did a few other US satellite states.

NEVER TRUST AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Sunday 20 November, 2011

Never Trust an Autobiography

Hameed Abdul Karim

Years ago I read Jimmy Carter’s autobiography thinking I might find a few behind the scenes narratives that might interest me. I wanted to know, for example, why he had authorised covert CIA operations against the Sandinistas after they overthrew the American backed dictator Anastasio Somoza and also his rationale behind the letter he had written to him heaping praise on his ‘human rights initiatives’, which were non-existent. Something on that? Nothing. Any remorse?  None.

THE WESTERN MEDIA, ITS TACTICS, MOTIVES AND IMPACT ON PEOPLE'S MINDS

The Western Media its Tactics, Motive and Impact on People’s Minds

Paper presented by

Hameed Abdul Karim

At the Institute of Objectives Studies

At its Silver Jubilee Celebrations at Bangaluru on 14 October 2011

‘Oh you who believe, if a sinner comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest you harm people unwittingly and afterwards become full of repentance for what you have done’

Qur’an 49:6

Most people associate media with TV, newspapers and radio. But when we were children we were not exposed to TV and didn’t have much to do with newspapers except the sports page. We were, however, exposed to comic books and we devoured every one of them we could lay our hands on. Our favourite ones were the Lone Ranger and Tarzan.

We did not know then that our minds were being ‘programmed’ or that we were being subjected to ‘Thought Control’ as one of the great intellectuals of our times Noam Chomsky put it in his book ‘Pirates and Emperors’.

The Lone Ranger brainwashed us to believe that the White man was superior because we found him riding a white horse and always solving the problems of the oppressed. Tonto, his side kick, was ‘red Indian’ and he rode a brown horse – no white horse for him. We started to believe the White man was superior and that a brown man was only good enough to do his bidding. It was around this time the supreme racist imperialist Rudyard Kipling wrote about the ‘White Man’s Burden’. (We were his victims) 

Tarzan brainwashed us to believe that the White man was superior in every aspect of life and that if something good had to be done it had to be done by the White man. We couldn’t imagine why Tarzan had to be White man in the thick of the Black African jungles. That’s how ‘Thought Control’ operated then and continues to operate up until today in a variety of ways. High tech toys have replaced comic books, but they carry the same message.

We were so awed by the goodness that America and the rest of the West represented that we began to despise our leaders and the heroes amongst us. Our heroes were Western leaders like Churchill or John Kennedy. Jawaharlal Nehru or Mohandas Gandhi – the half naked fakir according to Churchill – or Allama Iqbal, or Rabrinath Tagore or Omar Khayyam and countless others were to us backward and regressive with the evil intent to keep us forever backward. Instead we were brought up to read William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. Here I must confess the latter two Englishmen were of high quality and their writings still echo in my mind. But I think Dickens and Shakespeare among others were too overvalued and the sole purpose in getting us to read their works in school was to keep us within the realms of ‘thinkable thoughts’ the additional motive was to keep us away from ‘our’ writers and thinkers.

GLOATING OVER GADDAFI'S GRUESOME MURDER

Sunday 06 November 2011

Gloating over Gaddafi’s Gruesome Murder

Hameed Abdul Karim

In days gone by we were taught to respect the dead even if they happened to be evil like Gaddafi was. Anyone’s death is supposed to remind us of our own inevitable end. But obviously in the post modern world that we are living in, with its materialism and failing economies, there is no space for such human values.

No Western leader exemplified this sad state of affairs more than US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton as they competed with one another for the best gloat over Gaddafi’s gruesome murder.   Clinton beat them all when she said over CBS TV ‘We came, we saw, he died’ in a pathetic attempt to paraphrase Julius Caesar whilst laughing away in jubilation over the  latest murder of yet another third world leader. Sickeningly, her host couldn’t hide her glee either as she too joined in the fun laughing away like a kid who had been given a box of candies by Santa Claus. And this on a TV network that brags about journalistic values and all the hogwash that goes along with such snow-white claims.  So much for an unbiased American media!  

But there was a slip. CBS was conducting a formal interview with Clinton when her aides interrupted the recording to convey the ‘breaking news’ of Gaddafi’s murder. As she, her aides and the TV crew joked about Gaddafi’s murder the reporter slipped in a question. ‘Did your recent surprise visit to Libya have anything to do with Gaddafi’s death?”  ‘No’ replied Clinton. Then she rolled her eyes adjusted her jacket and confessed ‘I am sure it did’.