News networks across the world gave prime time to a non-event, a piece of no-news, nonsense, a rumour. How is it possible that the spoof piece of idiocy conjuring up Cold War hysteria of the type "The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!" made the international, national and even regional news prime time in the USA? Easy! If it's against Russia, it's newsworthy!
The Imedi channel's piece of baloney, hogwash and poppycock was a spoof item of fatuitous drivel, irrational inanity and pretentious prattle about a supposed Russian invasion of Georgia in which President Saakashvili was killed, sending Tblisi's residents out into the streets in a panic.
As an act of senselessness, a thoughtless and spineless piece of gibberish, mind-numbing stupidity and giddy madness, this piece probably takes the biscuit, though it is not as imaginative as the HG Wells Martian invasion of New Jersey in 1938. However, as all good movies have two names, a boy meets girl and a good over evil theme, this piece of vapid hooey also made its mark.
From a marketing point of view, had the Twin Towers attacks been used to market a brand of toothpaste, a new wunder-bra or better, a new construction company, it would have been a spectacular success, while all it did was to put Osama Bin Laden on the map as a global lunatic.
From a marketing point of view, Imedi's rash and ludicrous piece of bull was spot-on: it perpetuates the myth of Russia the Bear, Russia the Aggressor, Russia the Mad Dog, Russia the Danger, harping back to the days of Reds Under the Beds, Russians tearing children apart in orgies of bloodlust and constant warnings of tanks rolling westwards across the Iron Curtain.
Right now two Georgia movies are out, no doubt moulding public opinion with more inanity as far from the truth as possible. For obvious reasons.
Nothing about the fact that under the Soviet Constitution the voluntary dissolution of the Union was catered for, nothing about Georgia's contractual obligation to hold referendums in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, nothing about Georgia's continued refusal to do so, nothing about Russia's insistence for more than a decade for a solution acceptable to all, including Tblisi, nothing about Georgia's breaking of the ceasefire it called only to attack the Russian peacekeepers and launch a savage invasion in which women and children were strafed with machinegun fire in basements by Georgian troops.
More and more, one begins to realise that there are more intelligent things scrawled in excrement on the walls of public latrines than one reads and sees in the western "controlled" media.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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Three hundred civilians killed in Kandahar alone in just two years, vast areas of Afghanistan out of control, NATO massacres and cover-ups... Had NATO invaded last year, the chaos would be understandable, but nearly nine years on? What is NATO doing in Afghanistan, apart from overseeing a massive spike in heroin production?
"If you have got an individual stepping out of a compound and if your assault force is there, that is often the trigger to neutralise the individual. You don't have to be fired upon to fire back".
Tangibly, what has NATO's campaign managed to achieve in Afghanistan? There have been 1,685 deaths of NATO soldiers and CIA operatives, 259,308,000,000 USD (Two hundred and fifty-nine billion dollars) spent, thousands of civilian casualties, the wholesale discrediting of the Karzai regime which amounts to a gaggle of warlords, heroin traffickers and smugglers and an increase by 40 times of heroin production. Not bad. Oh, and NATO payments to the Taleban not to attack.
As the toll from Saturday's bomb blasts in Kandahar reaches at least 35 dead and 57 injured, it becomes obvious that the Taleban have the capacity to carry out such attacks at will, striking where, when and as they wish. The latest attack comes in retaliation to a NATO offensive in southern Afghanistan. Taleban spokesperson Yousuf Ahmadi stated to AFP that "This was to sabotage the operation and to show we can strike anywhere, any time we want".
"If you have got an individual stepping out of a compound and if your assault force is there, that is often the trigger to neutralise the individual. You don't have to be fired upon to fire back".
So nine years after the attack was launched in 2001, exactly what is NATO doing? Has a credible government been installed? No, it is full of warlords, criminals and drugs traffickers. Has heroin production been wiped out? No, it has increased by 40 times. Is the civilian population protected? No, in Kandahar alone nearly 300 people have died in violence in the last two years.
NATO massacre and cover-up
Fresh evidence has been unearthed about an attempted NATO cover-up of a massacre of civilians on February 12 near Gardez, Paktia Province, Eastern Afghanistan. The Times newspaper reports interviews with civilians in the area who discredit the official NATO line that shortly after the operation, a "gruesome discovery" was made of women's bodies tied and gagged.
"If you have got an individual stepping out of a compound and if your assault force is there, that is often the trigger to neutralise the individual. You don't have to be fired upon to fire back".
What in fact happened, according to the newspaper report, was that NATO made a botched night-time raid (since then night raids and air strikes have been scaled down) using US and Afghan forces, which resulted in the slaughter of two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two male civilians.
The report was based on interviews with a dozen civilians in the area, including a police chief and a religious leader who stated that the "gruesome discovery" was not perpetrated by insurgents, but by NATO and Afghan troops. False intelligence or intelligence which has not been properly investigated have led to a series of NATO massacres in Afghanistan.
The male civilians were the police commander Dawood, Head of Intelligence in a district of Paktia and his brother Saranwal Zahir, mowed down as he stood in the doorway protesting their innocence. The women were cowering behind him and were all killed in the same burst of machine-gun fire: Bibi Shirin (22) with 4 children under 5 years of age, Bibi Saleha (37), with 11 children. Both were pregnant. Gulalai (18) was engaged to be married and the family had prepared the wedding meticulously.
"If you have got an individual stepping out of a compound and if your assault force is there, that is often the trigger to neutralise the individual. You don't have to be fired upon to fire back".
NATO denies that its troops were involved and denies any attempt at a cover-up. However, according to The Times report, Rear Admiral Greg Smith stated, when interviewed about the incident, that he did not know if the "hostile" elements had fired any rounds, yet admitting that "they were not the targets of this particular raid" and justified the incident by claiming that "If you have got an individual stepping out of a compound and if your assault force is there, that is often the trigger to neutralise the individual. You don't have to be fired upon to fire back".
And if NATO was not to blame, then why was the family offered 2.000 USD per victim by the American compensation fund?
For NATO, a human casualty is worth 2.000 USD.
If after nearly nine years NATO is incapable of controlling Afghanistan, if after nine years senior NATO commanders admit the war is lost, if after nine years Afghanistan does not have a credible government, if after nine years the civilians in Afghanistan are neither safe from sectarian violence and certainly not safe from NATO massacres, if after nine years the heroin production is 40 times higher than it was, if after nine years NATO continues to perpetrate massacres and lie, then what exactly is NATO doing in Afghanistan, where a human life is worth 2,000 USD in American compensation?
And, while we are asking questions, what exactly is NATO?
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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One thing is claiming to be the victim all the time, over centuries. Another is acting in the same way, or worse, as those that are criticized for treating Jews badly. Certainly, Israel has the right to exist as a member of the international community...surely, if it behaves as such?
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, right? Human rights for those who behave as human beings, then. Obviously. And therefore those nations which do not behave as members of the international community, logically, should forfeit their rights to membership, just like a member of a sports club is banned if (s)he does not pay the fees or breaks the rules.
So why is Israel always playing the victim card, when it violates international law? And if Israel accepts the notion "an eye for an eye" then it cannot complain when inevitably the type of violations it commits daily go full cycle and are visited upon Tel Aviv. Can it? Ah! But to say such is anti-Semitism (an idiotic statement, because all the term means is "anti-Semitic" as regards Semitic languages, as per Hebrew and Arabic).
The main contributor towards the hatred in the international community towards Israel is not the Jews living their lives in Moscow, London, Teheran, Addis Ababa or Jerusalem, but rather, the actions of the state of Israel. Let us not pussy-foot around, let us have it out once and for all.
Israel tries to hide behind cowardly fences it builds for itself, namely making it a crime to question the existence of the Holocaust in many countries. Why the hysteria, why the exponential ultra-defensive posture regarding what seems to be obvious? For many of those who have visited concentration camps from the Second World War, there was never any doubt, until it became a crime to doubt.
Who is trying to cover up what? And why? Who made it a crime to speak about the African Holocaust, slavery, which was visited not upon 6 (?) million souls, but probably nearer to 70 million?
The way Israel behaves these days raises serious questions as to the integrity of this "people", if indeed Israelis can be called a single people and not a motley collection of Ethiopians, Finns, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Americans, Palestinians and Russians, to name but a few.
While the actions of individuals must be separated from those of the State, it is clear that Tel Aviv has a problem, a serious problem and a problem which places in question any continued goodwill towards the State of Israel's right to exist, as it stands today, among many in the international community.
The State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948 by David Ben-Gurion, and it gained the blessing of the vast majority of the members of the international community at the time. Over the years, it suffered attacks as a result of the abominable treatment of Palestinians (who were thrown out of their homes and lands as Jewish settlers started to arrive) and due to overwhelming military backing from the USA, managed to push back its original borders to areas claimed as a "Greater Israel" in Biblical texts.
However, we are not living in Biblical times and there exist norms such as the rule of law. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the Secretary-General of the UNO calls for an immediate halt to the illegal programme to build 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem. Those who know Benjamin Netanyahu as an inconsequential office boy half a century ago would not be that surprised, because Benjamin Netanyahu has never been anything more than the puppet of the gray forces controlling him.
Not only are the new settlements illegal under international law, they also violate the terms of the Roadmap for Peace.
Apart from this, the Gaza blockade against innocent civilians, including women and children, is contributing towards fuelling more anti-Israeli hatred and worse, towards the creation of criminal networks supporting an illegal economy, according to UN reports. Or is this what Israel wants?
For every day that passes, the international community feels more admiration for the resilience and courage of Gaza citizens and more and more sullen hatred for the pariah regime which builds illegal colonies and strangles the rights of civilians, including women and children.
What is wrong with Israel?
A country built on the basis of goodwill after the horrific and barbaric treatment meted out to Jews and after the 6 (?) million milestone became accepted finally among the international community after take 2 (WW2), Israel and Israelis could have done far better in terms of managing the process with a view to implementing a two-state policy in the region.
While there is no doubt whatsoever that the Holocaust took place (not only in Germany but also in the three Baltic States, Poland, Romania and practically every other country to have joined NATO recently... is this a pre-requisite for membership?) and while Israel's right to exist is unquestionable, it is also true that if Israel wishes to become a member of the international community (and a very recent member at that) then it has the obligation to respect international law.
The flip side of the coin is giving the victory to the Palestinians in the hearts and minds of the international community, which is what has happened. Hardly an intelligent policy move by Tel Aviv and a tell-tale sign that Israel has lost the media war, which in journalistic terms is paramount to losing air superiority in a conflict scenario.
The result is that Tel Aviv and Israel are today as isolated as Jews have ever been, but this time around not due to racism, rather because of pig-headed arrogance which will engender the response it deserves.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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Gender equality and the empowerment of women is one of the Millennium Development Goals to be reached by the year 2015. The anti-poverty targets set by the international community in 2001 can only be achieved if real progress is made in improving women's rights. This is the only way forward to achieving sustainable development in a number of key areas.
Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals, adopted by all members of the international community in 2001 (8 targets set to be achieved by 2015) is to "Promote gender equality and empower women", the first step of which is to "Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015" addressing:
* Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
* Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
* Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General of the UNO, stated yesterday in a meeting to prepare a review later in 2010 by ECOSOC on gender equality, that it is crucial to achieve significant progress in realizing women's rights as a means to addressing the targets set for sustainable development and thereby attacking pressing issues such as poverty, hunger and illiteracy.
This would logically be achieved by starting at the beginning, when women are girls of school age, yet the initial target of 2005 has not been reached in a number of countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa the ratio of female to male enrolment in primary education is 90%, falling to 80% in secondary education. In South Asia, the figures are 94 and 85% respectively.
Asha-Rose Migiro stated that "women and girls still face discrimination and disadvantage socially, economically and politically", while underlining that in many countries, women are more likely to be living in poverty. She added that women represent two thirds of the world's illiterate people.
On a more positive note, she pointed out that good practices and initiatives can be added to. Progress is being made towards gender parity in education despite the continued need for improvement: more girls than boys are enrolling in secondary education in Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and Pacific regions.
Cash transfer schemes that reward female attendance in education programs are being used in several countries and for the Deputy Secretary-General, the success of these programmes needs to be studied with a view to creating a second line of initiatives which will foster access for women to decision-making processes. Today, in only 25 countries is there a representation of more than 30% of women in national Parliaments.
More importantly, Asha-Rose Migiro considers that women can carry out crucial roles in resolution of armed conflicts, crisis management and post-conflict development of governments, institutions and civil society.
"When women and girls have the same freedoms and rights as men and boys, we will have more stable economies and stronger, more peaceful societies," she added.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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The United Nations Organization has launched an awareness campaign regarding the infringements of human rights caused by major sports events. If Soccer is the opium of the people, could these mega-events not go one step further and support global causes?
The United Nations Organization calls them "mega-events" referring to major sports venues such as the Olympic Games and World Cup Soccer Championships, where the eyes of half the world are glued to the TV screen.
While these events do have a theme and a logo, it often has nothing to do with global issues, but rather abstract eye-catching economic marketing soundbites such as "With Glowing Hearts", "It's Possible" or "Gateway to the Future".
Raquel Rolnik, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, considers that mega-events such as these can have negative social effects: "I am particularly concerned about the practice of forced evictions, criminalization of homeless persons and informal activities, and the dismantling of informal settlements in the context of mega-events," she states in a new report released by the UNO this week.
For Ms. Rolnik, "the importance given to the creation of a new international image for the cities, as an integral part of the preparation for the Games, often implies the removal of signs of poverty and underdevelopment through reurbanization projects that prioritize city beautification over the needs of local residents".
The results, in practice, she notes, are displacement, quoting as examples the 48,000 buildings in Seoul torn down for the FIFA World Cup in 2002 and the forced removal of 15% of the population from their homes and the Atlanta Olympics, in 1996, in which 1,200 social housing units for the poor were destroyed. She warns that plans for hundreds of thousands of low-cost homes in South Africa may be affected by the holding of the FIFA World Cup this year.
While the Olympic games have a wide variety of sports modalities which cater for the interests of practically everyone, whether a practiser of sport or a viewer, Soccer holds all the ingredients for a ready-made social communicator of prime importance, which is why it has become the opium of the people.
Mention a country and the first thing people say in response is to list the names of soccer players they know. "I am from Liberia". "Ah! George Weah!" "Portugal? Cristiano Ronaldo!" It matters not that the majority of the players spend their time kicking each other, swearing, spitting and blowing their noses with their hands and are unable to communicate effectively in their own language, apart from ridiculous stayed clichés and referring to themselves in the third person, demonstrating the mental development of a three-year-old.
Take soccer away from many of these prima-donnas and they would probably be unemployed, or unemployable. Indeed, the fact that even these creatures can become mega-stars emphasizes further the power of the game. Yet who can remember the global social theme behind one single mega-event? Who refers to South Africa FIFA 2010 as anything other than "The World Cup", "the Soccer Championship" or at most "It's Possible"?
Why not, then, attach these events to global socio-economic themes which give people more to think about than whether a penalty should have been awarded or whether a goal was offside? Or is that the whole idea in the first place, getting people to swarm in a sea of banality to give them an easy adrenalin fix to stop them worrying about important issues?
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru
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Has the policy of the United States of America changed substantially in Latin America? Judging by Washington's close friend and ally, Alvaro Uribe of Columbia, no, it has not. Murder of opposition activists, disappearances, threats and of course torture are the modus operandi in fashion in Columbia, where the USA has built up a considerable military presence. So much for the USA's "humane" foreign policy.
This is not good reading for those who are trying to digest their breakfasts, indeed it is not for people with weak stomachs or those who are easily impressionable. Attacks with acid in the eyes, burnings, horrific disfigurations are glaring tell-tale signs that Columbia is a horror state ruled by a monster, a pariah of Latin America, of the international community and a colossus of injustice, where all roads lead to Uribe, Washington's ally and friend.
These cases, and many more, can be read in the book "Death is not Dumb", a compilation drawn up by the National Trade Union School of the CUT (Trades Union Congress) in Medellin, capital of the Province of Antioquia, where Uribe was Governor before becoming President.
According to the book, which documents aggressions, threats and attacks against the physical integrity of Trade Unionists, every three days a Trade Union activist was murdered, there was a total of 2.704 assassinations between 1986 and 2009, a further 237 murder attempts against Trade Unionists and 190 disappearances; 4,418 death threats and 1,611 forced "removals" where activists had to abandon their homes and workplace due to pressure. The book connects these murders with Uribe, the one who opened up Columbia's bases to the USA, the one whose past is intrinsically linked with paramilitary forces, death squadrons and narco-terrorism.
Uribe's policy of extermination
Guillermo Correa Montoya, one of the authors of the work, claims that in Columbia there has been a systematic, structured, selective and continued program of violence by the Uribe Government against the Trade Union movement, calling it Uribe's "policy of extermination".
During Uribe's mandate in Medellin, it is claimed, 503 Trade Union activists were murdered, 37.9% of the total number of aggressions being perpetrated during the time he was Governor. The Columbian Committee of Jurists, which co-authored the book, states that there is a high degree of impunity among the murderers and criminals who carry out these attacks, because 98.3% of the murder cases are yet to be solved while the rate rises to 100% in the cases of disappearance, torture and home invasions.
In Columbia, tens of thousands of people have been murdered by the AUC (Autodefesas Unidas de Colombia), a fascist paramilitary organization which has admitted responsibility for 30,470 deaths in recent years. AUC is closely connected with large corporations with connections to Uribe, such as Chiquita (the banana monopoly). Chiquita also financed the extermination groups which worked under the façade of CONVIVIR, a group sponsored by Uribe himself (CONVIVIR were Cooperatives of Vigilance and Private Security used by the landowners supposedly to defend their latifundia against "terrorists" when the real terrorist attacks were perpetrated by these extermination groups).
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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Over 95 per cent of stories about Russia in the Western media are at least intrusive and at worst, fraught with insolence. Yesterday, it was absurd lies about the "DePutinization" of Russia, while the fact that Unified Russia (Government Party) enjoys well over three times the popularity of the entire opposition combined went untold. The flavour of the moment today is "pundits" predicting Russia's marginalization in the world when exactly the opposite is happening.
Flying round the Internet on Tuesday is yet another of those stories which arise from after-dinner speeches. After-dinner speeches differ from post-lunch speeches due to the fact that the alcohol consumed during the day has accumulated and therefore the degree of idiocy is that much higher. People are paid good money to deliver such speeches and, as those of us who have engaged in public speaking know only too well, it is not necessarily a good speech that produces the goods, but rather "what the public wants to hear".
After all, they paid for it, and they did not pay simply to slurp a bowl of luke-warm, clam chowder, munch on yet another bit-sized chunk of chewy but politically-correct chicken, swallow the eternal sorbet before the most interesting yet unfathomable course of the repast is served - some gooey dessert with a girly-sounding name, before wondering whether the brandies come free with the meal or have to be bought at the bar.
So if the truth is boring, to hell with the truth.
I remember watching several rows of red-cheeked glistening bald heads nodding in delight as some "expert" stated in Middle England during the mid-1980s: "Mikhail Gorbachev will not change anything because he has come from inside the ranks. He will maintain the same course or even go back". They are paid to say something, so it may as well produce an adrenalin rush, at least to keep the front three rows of the audience from nodding off and snorting as they try to stay on their chairs.
Such is the case with today's western media. Saying that Russia is affirming itself as it sorts itself out, saying that Russians are happy, is not exactly the sort of thing that people want to hear. Hey, too many jobs depend on gloom and doom stories, so if there has not been a Russian airliner crash for a year or two (let's forget Boeings are American), if there has not been a burst dam (by the law of averages, Russia having more large-scale constructions than anyone else, sooner or later something is going to give way to wear and tear), then it is the type of story published last week in Nezavisimaya Gazeta (March 5) which took 4 days to hit the Net.
In this yet another after-dinner speech type story, the author Sergei Kulikov quotes ominously from a speech "Within the next five, perhaps ten years, Russia with its resources will not be needed". (Wow! Will Albania come up with an alternative for all oil and gas by 2015?) and goes on to predict gloomily (to the sheer delight of the readers, bald pates no doubt a-glistening as they chortle over the fourth Port n Dubonnet) "Russia risks being marginalized in the world economy" (so get your skates on, start interfering now and do what you can to make things difficult is the implication?).. And where was this speech delivered? At the Association of European Businesses.
Sorry to be disappointing, but Russia is resurgent
After the Soviet Union dissolved (it did not "collapse" because its voluntary dissolution was catered for in its Constitution) a period of time elapsed in which the 15 States tried different experiments with varying degrees of success until things settled down again. One thing is clear: if the West intended to meddle, divide and take control of Russia's resources, it failed miserably.
If Russophobic and revisionist regimes were installed in the three Baltic States and in Georgia, so what? Russia never needed these political micro-organisms for anything anyway and as far as revisionism is concerned, the Balts could start with studying their collaborationist contribution during the Great Patriotic War and counting the number of concentration and extermination camps they installed in their territory.
Today, Russia enjoys wholesome and ever-closer economic ties with Belarus and Kazakhstan, Georgia has been neutered and ostracized after its act of mass murder and Ukraine has a sensible and level-headed President as the last remnants of the Orange Revolution are flushed down the drain. The epicentre of the Caucasus conflicts, Chechnya, had its free and fair referendum in which over 95% of the people declared their will to remain inside the Russian Federation. There is really no arguing with that, is there?
Moscow has regained its influence in each and every region of Russia and Russia's resources are firmly in the hands of Russians, to whom they belong, where they should be.
...and Russians are happy
A recent poll conducted by the insurance company Rosgosstrakh reveals that about 80 per cent of Russians are happy and satisfied with their living standards. A poll among Russian citizens in 138 cities shows that the average satisfaction rate is 78 per cent and that the figures depicting the minimum satisfaction rates exceed 50 per cent.
In conclusion, there are two sets of realities: the real facts and figures pertaining to a successful Russia with excellent international ratings and vast social and economic growth rates - and the after-dinner speech drunken haze of cigar smoke, brandy fumes and what can only be digestive gases, according to the stench from the filth we see and read in the western media.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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Much is made in the western press about a demonstration in Kaliningrad and something increasingly referred to as a "DePutinization" of Russia, yet nothing whatsoever is reported about the fact that Russian opinion polls, conducted openly and without an iota of manipulation, point towards massive popularity rates for the Government.
The Western media has a problem, a big problem: now that the Cold War has ended, there is no "them" to justify the "us" so they have been detailed to create one. Africa is a dark place where extreme weather conditions coupled with decades of mismanagement and a legacy of colonialism and imperialism have created situations of extreme poverty.
Therefore it is relegated to the status of "sick man of the world" and the only news that comes out of it is negative, but Africa is not powerful enough to be considered as a foe. Asia? Too far away. Latin America? Idem and anyway it was Uncle Sam's back garden. In the case of the Soviet Union, this same media had a wonderful adversary: strong, powerful, standing on the other side of the Iron Curtain and right on Europe's doorstep!
But what happened when the Union dissolved (voluntarily, as catered for under its own Constitution)? Easy! They just perpetuated the myth, even though the story did not exist. Hence the absurd references to Putin as "dictator" (he was democratically elected as President, not once but twice, with a huge margin of popularity, more than Presidents Bush and Obama together). Hence the sheer ignorance displayed in these propaganda outlets (let's call a spade, a spade) when referring to the Government party, United Russia, as anything other than the party the Russian people have chosen and the party which a vast majority still supports.
In the recent opinion poll carried out by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center, the second most popular party was revealed: The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), led by Gennady Ziuganov. The voter approval rate? 7 (seven) per cent. In third place the LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party) of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, with 5% and in fourth place, A Just Russia (Spravedlivaya Rossiya, SR) led by Sergey Mironov, with 4%.
And Unified Russia, the party of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin? First, with an overwhelming majority, with a voter approval rate over seven times higher than the second-placed Communist Party, with 54%.
Now where is that statistic in the western media, and where, by the way, is the darling of the western press, Gary Kasparov? In a word, and in answer to both questions, nowhere.
Therefore the media can make what it wants of demonstrations and protests (the ones which are legalised properly according to the law are authorized, the ones which are deliberately organized illegally to stir up trouble receive the same treatment as similar demonstrations everywhere else).
Certainly people protest. They have a lot to protest about. Those old enough to remember can only compare the system before and after (full employment, free housing, free public services, free or very cheap public utilities, excellent education system, leisure time, indexed pensions, versus unemployment, the drama it is to buy a house, the drama of keeping a job, rising prices and all the other utter marvels inherent in the market economy). But this is not the fault of the Government, this is not the fault of Unified Russia.
It is the fault of the global economic and financial system which lurches from boom to bust, which crashes from one disaster to the next and which carries in its wake firms, jobs and livelihoods. If Russia were a dictatorship as they say, the protests would not exist.
It would be interesting to see some truthful reporting in western media circles, and not hype, hysteria and histrionics. The protests and demonstrations are about economics, not politics and if Unified Russia had not run the country so skilfully, things would be far worse than they are.
That is why Unified Russia has an approval rate well over three times higher than the 3 leading opposition parties put together. So when the Russophobic Western media speaks about the "Opposition" as a powerful force inside Russia, why don't they ask the people how they intend to vote?
Kind of makes a mockery of the utter drivel they write, does it not?
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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Monday March 8 is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, a national holiday in Russia (since 1965) to commemorate the remarkable achievements of women in guaranteeing victories for human rights despite continued constraints. International Women's Day serves as a focal point for us to document the present and future challenges facing women and to pool resources to implement women's rights on a global scale. Amazing it is that such a Day should still be necessary.
"The beating was getting more and more severe. In the beginning it was confined to the house. Gradually he stopped caring. He slapped me in front of others and continued to threaten me. Every time he beat me it was as if he was trying to test my endurance, to see how much I could take". (1)
History of International Women's Day
International Women's Day started in the United States of America, launched by a declaration of the Socialist Party of America on February 28th, 1909 using as a basis the need to guarantee women's rights in an increasingly industrialized society and was taken up by the international community at the first International Women's Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1910. The horrific and inhumane conditions at the New York Triangle Shirtwaist factory which caused the deaths of 140 garment workers (mostly women) in 1911 provided an added impetus at a time when women were pressing for the right to vote and demonstrations in Russia prior to the 1917 Revolution were the first signs of women's emancipation in that country, culminating in the declaration by Lenin of a Women's Day on March 8th; in 1965 it was declared a public holiday by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
"Emotional abuse is worse. You can become insane when you are constantly humiliated and told that you are worthless, you are nothing" (2)
Why March 8th?
Women had been demonstrating for their rights since pre-Classical times (e.g. the sexual strike called by Lysistrata in Ancient Greece, the March on Versailles by Parisian woman calling for "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" in the 1790s). Copenhagen had chosen 19th March for the celebration of an International Women's Day but in 1913, Russian women chose the last Sunday in February (following the Declaration by the Socialist Party of America in 1909) as the date for their International Women's Day to call for peace on the eve of the First World War. As Springtime and local customs to give the first flowers to women combined, the end of Febuary/beginning of March began to be the time of year observed by the feminist movements, until in 1917, Russian women called a strike on the last Sunday of February to protest against the War (23d February) in the Julian Calendar; 8th March in the Gregorian.
"My husband slaps me, has sex with me against my will and I have to conform" (3)
Continuing the impetus
After having been considered "too stupid to have the right to vote", over the last century, women stood up for their rights and won victories, culminating in the right to vote and in gaining equal rights across a wide spectrum of professional activities.
"I take a blanket and I spend the night with my children out in the cold because he is hitting me too much and I have to take the kids to stop him hitting them too" (4)
However, so much more needs to be done and it is a telling statement that after 100 years, we are still faced by glaring and shocking statistics regarding women, such as:
Women own one per cent of the world's property, earn 10% of the world's income, yet perform 66% of the work, produce 50% of the food;
Women have to work longer hours than men to receive the same income;
Women are concentrated in insecure jobs in the informal sector and are far more vulnerable to unemployment;
Unacceptable statistics
How can we state that we have reached a collective state of civilization when we are confronted by statistics such as these?
A WHO study conducted in ten countries discovered that between 15 and 71% of women reported physical or sexual violence perpetrated by a husband or partner;
For the 15-44 age group, violence causes more victims among women than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war;
Up to 40% of women in some countries stated that their first sexual encounter was not consensual;
There are 5,000 honour killings worldwide per year;
20% of women worldwide experience sexual abuse as children;
In South Africa, one women is killed every 6 hours by an intimate partner; in India 22 women are murdered each day in dowry-related incidents, often burnt alive;
80% of the world's victims of human trafficking are women;
100 to 140 million girls have been the victims of Female Genital Mutilation, 3 million girls per year are subjected to this horrific act of intrusion;
There are 60 million girls per year forced into marriage as child brides;
Worldwide, 25% of pregnant women are subjected to physical or sexual abuse (including being punched or kicked in the abdomen);
40 to 50% of women in the EU have experiences sexual harassment at work;
83% of girls in the USA experienced some form of sexual harassment in public schools (5)
Conclusion
If we state that women's rights have been reached and ignore the facts presented above (but a minuscule sample of the horrific register of sexist abuse) then we are admitting that we live in an unjust, feeble and impotent global society which in over one hundred years of concerted efforts to set women's rights on an equal footing with those of men has still not managed to create universal and global structures.
While one of the biological functions of the woman is to carry the child through pregnancy (if
she so wishes), how can we say that we have reached any pinnacle of success if the right to employment is in many cases subjected to the precept that the woman will not have children and when hardly any societies worldwide have created the financial mechanisms for women to have full professional lives while performing their chosen roles as wives and mothers, quite apart from guaranteeing their right to inviolability of their physical integrity?
(1) UNO: Thai University Graduate
(2) UNO: Woman interviewed in Serbia/Montenegro
(3) UNO: Woman interviewed in Bangladesh
(4) UNO: Woman interviewed in Peru
(5) American Association of University Women. 2001. Hostile Hallways: Bullying, Teasing, and Sexual Harassment in School.
Lisa KARPOVA
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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The Russian national soccer team is as from yesterday officially in a post-Guss Hiddink trauma syndrome, although it might not know it yet. If Hiddink didn't do it, who can? Who can make this group of players perform like those boys who ate the grass in the Summer of 2008, or who can make the perfect balance between the Russia of EURO-2008 and post-Maribor 2009? A name appears... two actually...
Guus Hiddink took Russia to a pinnacle the team had not reached for many years, gaining third place in the UEFA 2008 after stunning performances, principally against Holland. Everything led us to believe that the team would build on this success and go further.
The FIFA 2010 campaign was good, very good but with one stone in the shoe: Germany in the group. But for a dose of bad luck in both games against Germany, Russia would today be making travel plans for South Africa. Under Hiddink, Russia finished second in the qualifying group for the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa behind Germany, with 22 points - the best second place, and enough to win several other groups outright. Everything seemed set for a victorious outcome in the play-off over two legs with Slovenia.
Instead, a poor lacklustre and tired performance in both legs of the play-off (2-1 in Moscow and 0-1 in Maribor) spelt the end of this generation and a full stop in Hiddink's aspirations in Russia. The team was a shadow of itself just one year previously. Slovenia qualified for South Africa on away goals. Russia will watch the finals on TV.
He leaves declaring that "Do svidanya" means not "Goodbye" but "Until I see you again", meaning that the possibility of a come-back is open and departs for Turkey, where he will take up the challenge of coaching the national team in August.
His sins? Accused of not spending enough time in Russia and of relying too heavily on the nucleus of players who had done him proud in UEFA 2008, Guus Hiddink did not need to prove himself before he came to Russia. His success as a coach is enviable: With PSV Eindhoven, he won the Dutch First Division Championship six times, (1986/87, 1987/88, 1988/89 2002/03, 2004/05 and 2005/06), the UEFA Champions League in 1987/88 and the Dutch Cup three times (1987/88, 1988/89 and 1989/90). To this he added the World Clubs Title with Real Madrid in 1998 and the English FA Cup with Chelsea in 2008/9.
As a national team coach, he took Holland and South Korea to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, respectively, in 1998 and 2002 and in 2006, guaranteed Australia their first presence in a World Cup final stage in 32 years.
After Hiddink who is next? The internal figure may be Kurban Berdyev who took FC Rubin Kazan to two successive championships in the Russian Premier League. Certain limited experience in Europe was a positive but the international career is limited. The external one may be the British Roy Hodgson. His pedigree is enviable: In club football, he has managed Viking FK, Malmo FF, Internazionale, Blackburn Rovers, Grasshoppers, FC Copenhagem, Udinese and is currently at Fulham FC. As national team manager, he took Switzerland to the 1994 World Cup Finals and the Euro 1996 Finals.
Having worked in UEFA and FIFA technical groups and being multi-lingual, Roy Hodgson has international experience which may prove irresistible to Russia.
Time will tell. But now that Hiddink has closed the door, who else?
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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President Hugo Chavez is right. There is a sinister and underhanded, hidden and deceitful side to Washington's diplomacy and the document we are about to reveal proves it. Who is in charge of the White House, President Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton and the arms and AIPAC lobbies? After reading this, there can be little doubt.
Eva Golinger* discovered this document, "Department of the Air Force, Military Construction Program Fiscal Year 2010" drawn up in May of 2009, sent by the Pentagon to the US House of Congress. This is the document denounced by President Hugo Chavez at the UNASUL meeting on August 28, 2009 in Bariloche, regarding the US base at Palanquero, Columbia and proves the veracity of the philosophy General Mobility of the US Air Force in Latin America.
President Alvaro Uribe and Secretary of State Hillary "War Zone" Clinton are liars, according to this document. He, and the US State Department, stated on October 30 2009 on the occasion of the signing of the military agreement between Washington and Bogota, that the document concerned only operations within the territory of Columbia (with a view to fighting drugs trafficking and "terrorism").
The document mentions "world class space superiority". On Page 217 of the document ** regarding the base at Palanquero it states clearly: "Mission or Major Functions: This Cooperative Security Location (CSL) enhances the U. S. Global Defense Posture (GDP) Strategy which directs development of a comprehensive and integrated presence and basing strategy aligned with the principles of developing relations with partner nations. Palanquero provides an opportunity for conducting full spectrum operations throughout South America including CN (Counter Narcotics) missions. It also supports mobility missions by providing access to the entire continent, except the Cape Horn region, if fuel is available, and over half of the continent if unrefueled".
Full Spectrum Dominance is a US military concept involving joint military structure control over all battlespace elements in a region (land, air, sea, space). It is a strategic doctrine espoused by the USA in recent years with regard to preparing to control any situation with a wide range of military options.
Page 218 speaks about operations not in Columbia, but in the "sub-region" and I quote: "Location (CSL) at Palanquero best supports the COCOM's Theater Posture Strategy and demonstrates our commitment to this relationship. Development of this CSL provides a unique opportunity for full spectrum operations in a critical sub region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from narcotics funded terrorist insurgencies, anti-US governments, endemic poverty and recurring natural disasters".
The document goes on to mention "theatre operations", "operational aircraft" and then justifies the location of Palanquero because of its location and the fact that it "minimizes the US military profile" and refers to "regional access and presence".
"Palanquero is unquestionably the best site for investing in infrastructure development within Columbia. Its central location is within reach of Andean Ridge counter narco-terrorist operations areas; the superb runway and existing airfield facilities will reduce construction costs; its isolation maximizes Operational Security (OPSEC) and Force Protection and minimizes the U.S. military profile. The intent is to leverage existing
infrastructure to the maximum extent possible, improve the U.S. ability to respond
rapidly to crisis, and assure regional access and presence at minimum cost".
"Palanquero supports the mobility mission by providing access to the entire South
American continent with the exception of the Cape Horn region if fuel is available,
and over half of the continent unrefueled".
In the same section we have a reference to the need to perform upgrades to Palanquero because "If these upgrades are not accomplished, it will severely limit the ability of USSOUTHCOM to support the U.S. Global Defense Posture (GDP)
Strategy which directs development of a comprehensive and integrated presence and
basing strategy aligned with the principles of developing relationships with
partner nations, ensuring mutual benefits between US and partner nations, limited
restrictions on U.S. freedom of action by partner nations and appropriate sharing
of costs".
Is the State Department running the USA? It sure doesn't seem to be President Obama.
*Federal Promotor from New York, living in Caracas since 2005. 
**http://www.centrodealerta.org/documentos_desclasificados/original_in_english_air_for.pdf
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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What is the difference between the current and previous US Administrations? The Bush regime was abrasive, bullying, chauvinistic and divisive, wantonly destroying bridges as it rode roughshod over an international community that did not act with a unified voice; the Obama approach is more agreeable, benevolent, cultured and dynamic. What a difference.
Two different generations, two different styles from one and the same people, the same country. While the Bush regime was perhaps the epitome of arrogance, belligerence and callousness, spelling out the ABC of the very worst the conspiracy theorists could level at Washington, Barack Obama, especially, and not necessarily the "regime" lurking in the shadows around him, is a breath of fresh air, representing instead the fundamental precepts of democracy, namely debate, dialogue and discussion.
His promise to listen has as yet produced little or nothing as regards foreign policy. The horrific and inhumane trade embargo continues to place a stranglehold around the heroic people of Cuba, just because the island decided to throw off the yolk of imperialism and constitute an alternative system. Hillary Clinton's request for Brazil to use its influence to act on the Islamic Republic of Iran may have fallen on deaf ears. The USA favours pressure, Brasilia favours dialogue and the United States' close relationship with the Uribe regime in Chile, complete with his background of para-militarism and narco-terrorism, is antagonistic to the collective psyche of the Continent.
However, there can be no doubt that the will for collaboration and cooperation is out there in the international community, and the fact that the US Secretary of State is speaking to Washington's international partners and not formulating a unilateralist policy behind closed doors is a very welcome change.
And this change has been noticed in Russia where a recent poll reveals that for the first time since the Georgia conflict, the number of Russians who declare that they like the USA has surpassed 50 per cent. The opinion poll, carried out by the Levada Center, reveals that while the figure was just 31% in November 2008 (shortly after the war in which Georgia declared a ceasefire, then violated it in a cowardly manner and slaughtered almost 2,000 Russian civilians in South Ossetia before being thrashed in a lightning campaign by the Russian Armed Forces) now 54 per cent of Russians declare they like the USA.
Those who stated they dislike the USA fell from 54% to 31% in the same period. What is the reason for this?
The death of unilateralism
The Obama team understood from very early on that the old abrasiveness and arrogance followed by Washington Administrations which were wholly insensitive to how people behaved and acted overseas would create far more enemies than friends.
The Russian Federation has for years been calling for a multilateralist approach which uses the UNSC as its forum for debate and decision-making as the dangers of the unilateralism followed by the previous administrations (Clinton's foreign policy disaster in the Balkans and the Bush catastrophe in Iraq) were revealed and the need for a new approach became apparent.
Obama's call for dialogue and his promise to listen is the presentation of an agreeable, pleasant modus operandi in which mutual respect for each others' cultures and the will to talk and learn together can become a fundamental precept of world diplomacy for the coming century. While Moscow has insisted that this be the cornerstone of diplomacy for decades, only with the commitment of Washington will it be possible.
With Obama, yes, we can.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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With friends like Osama Bin Laden among the Bosnians, why should Radovan Karadzic need enemies? As the defence enters the last day of two, we see the utter injustice of the International Criminal Court, a NATO instrument of kidnapping, illegal detention and laundering of NATO war crimes. If it were a serious legal institution, Bush and his cronies would be languishing in a cell. As it is, it has again violated its own Constitution and the case is void.
Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader during the Bosnian war, entered the first of his two-day defence today in front of the ICC at The Hague. Denying two counts of genocide and nine others (murder, extermination, persecution, forced deportation and seizing hostages), he declares that he will "defend that nation of ours" which followed a "just and holy cause". After all, Radovan Karadzic was fighting international terrorism. And who was on the other side? The one the CIA referred to as UBL, himself: Osama Bin Laden.
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NASA scientist Richard Gross claims that the massive 8.8. magnitude Chile earthquake on February 27 may have shifted the Earth's axis by as much as 8 cm (3 inches) which would be enough to shorten the length of day. According to NASA website, using a computerised model modeling the earth's rotation, Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, estimated that the figure axis upon which the Earth's mass is balanced could have been shifted by the Chile quake, the fifth largest in history, by 2.7 milliarcseconds, equivalent to 8 cm or 3 inches. This occurred because a portion of the earth's core collapsed swiftly and massively, altering the planet's equilibrium.
view more >>Doesn't it feel great to slam the door behind you as you walk out, stick up the middle finger using the palm of the left hand on the upper right forearm for extra leverage and blow a giant raspberry? That is exactly how it feels as Russia leaves Vancouver after disappointing Games with a question, was the Canadian ice hockey team on drugs?
The middle finger goes to the shockingly dangerous organization of the Games which cost the life of a Georgian luger right at the outset on day 1 (Nodar Kumaritashvili lost his life because the track was unfit, and indeed the corner where he crashed was elevated the following day) and the giant raspberry goes to the appalling, abominable and biased judging of events which cost Russia medal after medal.
The middle finger and the giant raspberry go to the Canadian ice hockey team. Were they on drugs the day they beat Russia so overwhelmingly? These days, and since the USSR's 8-1 thrashing of Canada in the early 80s, Canada-Russia ice hockey games are always very closely fought events and there has not been such a monumental difference between the two sides. Very strange, the more so since the same Team Canada (whatever the hell that stupid expression is supposed to mean) put in an extremely lacklustre performance against lowly Slovakia and was lucky to reach Sunday's final. And for anyone who is about to be shocked by the question, one supposes it is OK to make cheap and gratuitous references to Russians and doping, but when the ball rolls back home it hurts. Right?
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In the United States of America, there are some 7,000 racial hate incidents a year. In the Russian Federation, in 2009, there were 71 such incidents with foreigners, down from 110 in 2008. Yet why is the international press full of stories about racial hate crimes in Russia and silent about everywhere else?
As usual, Russia is the victim of a slagging campaign by those who wish to gain a reputation by making derogatory comments in the "bought 'n' biased" western media, which likes to sell cosy packages of half-truths to its readers and viewers. In this case, the topic once again is racial hate crime.
Brazil's President Lula has just started his fourth trip to Cuba, in an atmosphere of friendship and good humour, expressing solidarity between two States and two peoples living happily with two different economic systems. Why would it be impossible for a President of the United States of America to shake hands with Fidel Castro and sign a treaty of cooperation and friendship?
President Obama was elected on a ticket of change, claiming "Yes, we can". Then why don't you? What, for instance, has changed in the US policy towards Cuba since President Obama took office? Precious little. True, family visits are less restrictive. True, it is easier to send remittances from the United States to Cuba. True, it is now easier to deliver humanitarian aid. However, this does not mean that all restrictions on travel to Cuba have been lifted and this does not mean that the inhumane trade embargo has been lifted.
In fact, there has been no substantial difference in the United States' policy towards Cuba for several decades. Therefore it comes as no surprise whatsoever that President Lula of Brazil can exchange frank and open smiles and embraces with the Secretary-General of the Cuban Communist Party, Fidel Castro, and the President of the Republic of Cuba, Raul Castro, on his fourth visit to the island during his Presidency, whereas as President, Barack Obama will not travel there once.
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Has anyone noticed how suddenly there is little or no news coming out of Iraq? Have the "insurgents" simply melted away, have they all been paid off? With the British and US troops cowering in massive military bases outside the main cities, is Iraq all right and rosy with law and order reigning in the cities while the invasion force looks on smiling?
In a word, no. New research conducted by Professor Michael Schwarz for Project Censored* indicates that the country has spiralled out of control, that violence has reached record proportions, that well over one million Iraqis have lost their lives as a result of the US-led invasion and that there are far more Iraqis pouring out of Iraq than there are returning, despite the cosy statements to the contrary.
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From time to time, a western newspaper gives space to Gary Kasparov, an Azeri who has a residence in New York and an apparent interest in stirring things up inside Russia. While it is understandable that he would prefer residence in the USA to Azerbaijan, his pretensions as regards Russia are curious, if not ominous. Who is pulling his strings?
Giving space to Gary Kasparov is paramount to plying an alcoholic geriatric town crier on the verge not only of senile dementia but also endemic unemployment, with his bottle of Ripple and sending him bawling into the night after telling him his wife has run off with the milkman and won't be coming back.
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Four more medals for Russia in the Vancouver Winter Olympics: one Gold, one Silver and two Bronze, bringing the tally to 13 and moving Russia up to fourth place ahead of Canada and just two medals shy of Norway. On Monday, after the Bronze medal won in the Women's Team Sprint Free by Irina Khazova and Natalia Korosteleva, it was the turn of Nikolai Morilov and Aleksei Petukhov to win another third place in the Men's Team Sprint in Cross-Country Skiing, an event won by Norway's Petter Northug and Oeystein Pettersen. Germany's Tim Tscharnke and Axel Teichmann won the Silver.
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