FEELING BETRAYED - A NOTE TO ALJAZEERA-ENGLISH

Feeling Betrayed

A Note to Al-Jazeera

Hameed Abdul Karim

During the past few days there has been a paradigm shift in Al-Jazeera's (English) news telecasts.

The news about the Libyan revolution was top on the list for months, but today (27 September 2011)  it was about the fifth on the 'agenda' despite the fact that the 'rebels' had entered Sirte once again.

About a couple of days ago news on Turkey's expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, which was unprecedented, went to the 4th slot. 

AHMADINEJAD: WHAT HE SAID......

This is with reference to an article appearing in The Island on April 23 2009 under the heading ‘Israel Pledges to protect itself from ‘new holocaust’ threat posed by Iran’s nuclear programme’ in which the extreme rightist Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to protect Israel from the so called Iranian nuclear threat.

Whitewashing the Mortal Sins of Israel

The Nation

Whitewashing the mortal sins of Israel

Hameed Abdul Karim 

As the American sponsored Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip in Palestine and the attack on Lebanon with the blessings of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the support of the ‘international community’ including poodle Blair’s Britain, continues to take its toll the western media has swung into action drumming up support and sympathy for Israel.

Letter: Gaza Flotilla Story

The Sunday Leader

In response to an article on a Australian Sri Lankan shot in the Gaza Flotilla raid,

Hameed Abdul Karim writes:

I wish to point to an error in your reporting on the news item about the attack on Sri Lankan Australian Ahmad Luqman. You have stated that the Israeli soldiers opened fire after they were attacked by civilians on board the Mavi Maramara. Unfortunately this is not true. It was reported extensively in the world media (except the US and of course the Israeli media) that the Israeli commandos opened fire before they landed on board killing two activists according to Paul Larudee, an American on board the humanitarian ship.

Ahmad Luqman, who happens to be a nephew of former minister Imtiaz Bakeer Markar, says just about the same thing in the documentary televised by Al-Jazeera.

America's Enemy - America's Media

Hameed ABDUL KARIM  US President Thomas Jefferson once said that ‘the security for all (Americans) is in the free press. That was when more than 80 percent of the US media were independent. But by 1983 there were only about 50 corporations which controlled more than half of all information, knowledge and entertainment companies in the US. In 1987, the figure fell dramatically to 27. Today the picture for a free media is even grimmer with more corporations merging in the wake of the recession.

Cricket and Patriotism

CRICKET AND PATRIOTISM
Posted on September 1st, 2009

Hameed Abdul Karim

This was in response to an editorial in the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror

Your DM editorial ‘Cricket, Nation and Religion’ of August 11, 2009 insinuates certain sections of Muslims as being unpatriotic because of their support for Pakistan .  You even go to the extent of blaming the Islamic faith for this aberration. Let me remind you that the Pakistani’s turned up in their numbers to support Sri Lanka in the World Cup final in Lahore where Sri Lanka beat Australia . If faith was a motivating factor, then the Pakistani’s should have supported Australia because of the kinship between Islam and Christianity. Australians wouldn’t have been far off the mark if they accused Pakistanis of regionalism when they supported Sri Lanka .  

The Tale of Two Leaders

The Tale Of Two Leaders

Hameed Abdul Karim 

In the context of this simple truism one has only to look at President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, and find in him a goodie-goodie guy who never fails to please his Western masters. “You would find Western leaders calling on him on and off and praising him sky high for ‘laudable efforts in bringing in democracy to his people.’Prof. Ismail Faruqi had a simple yardstick to judge third world leaders. He said if the Western media, an extension of Western imperialism, said that such and such third world leader was a good man then it would mean he is a stooge of the West and if they said he was baddie he was indeed a good man, a man and a leader who has chosen to work for the betterment of his people.

The TV Muslim

 

 

The TV Muslim

Negative Portrayal of Muslims on Teledramas

by Hameed Abdul Kareem

 

A few days ago, while switching channels on the idiot box, I happened to come across a scene in a tele-drama, where a Sinhalese boy was demanding some item or the other for free from the ‘mudalali’ seated at the cashier table at a ‘Thambi kade’. The ‘mudalali’ happened to be one of those stereotyped Muslims depicted so often in movies and on TV programmes.

Our ‘Thambi Mudalali’ was portrayed wearing a ‘Thambi’ prayer cap and had a beard that covered his entire chin and yes, he carried a huge pot belly and wore a tight white banian to complete the picture of your standard TV Muslim. 

Julian Assange: Hero or Villain?

Julian Assange: Hero or villain?
By Hameed Abdul Karim
'Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable ...' George Orwell
Here's some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, is to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. And the bad news is that I am joking. But jokes aside, Julian Assange really deserves the Pulitzer Prize like nobody else for his exposure of the US army's killing of unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. Among the dead were Reuter reporter Shaeed Chamgh and his driver Nameer Noor - Eldeen who were 'armed' with cameras.

America's Enemy American Media

Saturday, March 27, 2010

America’s enemy American media

Hameed ABDUL KARIM

US President Thomas Jefferson once said that ‘the security for all (Americans) is in the free press. That was when more than 80 percent of the US media were independent. But by 1983 there were only about 50 corporations which controlled more than half of all information, knowledge and entertainment companies in the US. In 1987, the figure fell dramatically to 27. Today the picture for a free media is even grimmer with more corporations merging in the wake of the recession.