Guest Blogger: Of Big Mac and Teh Tarik

This written by my close friend, R Droto, who happens to be this month's Guest Blogger. You can read more of his writings here.


By R Droto

"I'm lovin' it"

Where in the world is peace? Well, it lies in your hand, for Goodness' sake! Flat out your hand, no, your fingers until you clearly see your palm. Then, close your thumb, ring finger and your pinkie. And there you go, PEACE - grinning until you see your glistening teeth in front of the mirror, water or its equivalent. Indeed, peace is actually in your hand. You are the one who would call the shot!

Remember a clown with a curly reddish hair and one-foot long shoes with circular shape at the edge? He also wears red and white stripes t-shirt. You must have noticed this guy if you like to eat strawberry Sundae and Big Mac burger. If you don't, I bet you are always using the drive-thru.

It is confusing. It truly is. Undoubtedly, people are starting to detest the regime for their merciless massacre in a land which they unwaveringly claim theirs. Historically speaking, the land was occupied by Arabs (Muslims, Christians and whatnot) for thousands of years, after which there were lots of conflicts that culminated in wars.

I know, I know, people are now hoping to get lowest possible prices for teh tarik, hence, price war breaks out. It's a good thing though to have a war like this. That shows how perfectly competitive teh tarik stalls are. Yeah, how ironic!

Not surprisingly, there are also some who couldn't be bothered by the situation in Gaza. Why? Let's see whether or not their all-time favourite fast food is still the aforementioned. Some might go straight off saying that the global economy is experiencing its recession, much to the extent that the situation may be worse off in a few months time. Hence, boycotting their Big Macs wouldn’t do any good to the global economy.

Fingers crossed, no more 1930s Great Depression. It could, however be justified if the economy is bent on agonizing people of all walks. Try to switch from Conventional Financial System to Islamic Financial System. Chances are, no one would be cast aside. Everyone is entitled to equal rights regardless of their status and social classes. Justified? Give it a shot then.

Granted, young children are being slaughtered in Gaza City, granted, the US doesn't give it a damn, instead it continues supplying military aid to the violent regime, granted people are still having starbucks coffee, granted president-elect Obama keeps quiet, granted, teh tarik dah kurang manis - though good for health.

Seeing children with limbs being torn off is so emotionally poignant. If only I were UAE's prime minister, if only I were the Iranian president, if only I were Barack Obama - I would have done whatever I could to put a halt to the massacre - OR technically called the genocide.

The root-beer (or Coca-cola for that matter) of the problem is none other than the extremists. Well, extremists being extremists. Nothing matters other than their own ideology with which they vow to do whatever it takes to disseminate. Dealing with them is a hell of a chore. Negotiation? This will do any good so long as both sides of the aisle unanimously abide by the resolution. Yeah, Strawberry Sundae will, at the end of the day, melt (if not being eaten instantly).

An old friend of mine was fervently advocating the military means by Israel as a tool to wipe out the entire Hamas population. Like an old man finishing off his last drops of teh tarik, but in a more subtle way. Infamous weapons like those of chemical are deployed to subtly obliterate the population; like a child licking the remaining BBQ sauce on the burger cover. What he believes - which is also what I believe, is that, there are always two sides of the story. One is right while another is wrong - or else, both are wrong which is presumably due to their selfish and baseless ideologies.

One wonders, the UN calls for a ceasefire was not being entertained. So, what’s the use of having a UN? What’s the use of coffee if it's not for Starbucks, The Coffee Beans and the like? Well, if we look back retrospectively, never once did Israel give a damn to UN's demand, let alone OIC's, let alone Middle-east countries, let alone South-east Asia's OR even Malaysia, for that matter! As written by a renowned scholar, 14 millions Jews in the world can actually outlast peoples from the other side of the divide. They have, indeed, done wonders for the world whilst others are still crawling to find the meaning of life - or kowtowing to the demands of these so-called economic-super-powerful people.

Speaking about economy, in Malaysia for instance, Pak Lah's heir-apparent has been very wary in facing the impending calamity of financial turmoil – which will come ashore at any time. After assuming the Finance Ministry Office, he comes out with RM7b stimulus package, which can, in a way or another, avert Malaysia from plunging into depression in the near future. It’s like a rose-coloured vision of a young country, isn’t it? Hope it isn't going to be just another bailout-er. Hence, more Teh Tarik stalls can be built by the ranks offering obscenely low prices for the combo tarik-and-roti-canai-kosong (AKA value meal)!

Now, I'm REALLY lovin' it!


Glossary
The tarik : An all-time favourite beverage by most Malaysians during breakfast. Made from tea and milk.


R Droto tries very hard to be sarcastic, but to no avail. He is committed to getting pleasure in writing which has become his favourite pastime since 2007. Will be pursuing his first degree in Commerce in Melbourne next month, he hopes to find comfort in getting his messages crossed.

The Humiliation of America

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

“Early Friday morning the secretary of state was considering bringing the
cease-fire resolution to a UNSC vote and we didn’t want her to vote for it,”
Olmert said. “I said ‘get President Bush on the phone.’ They tried and told me
he was in the middle of a lecture in Philadelphia. I said ‘I’m not interested, I
need to speak to him now.’ He got down from the podium, went out and took the
phone call.”

"Let me see if I understand this,” wrote a friend in response to news reports that Israeli Prime Minister Olmert ordered President Bush from the podium where he was giving a speech to receive Israel’s instructions about how the United States had to vote on the UN resolution. “On September 11th, President Bush is interrupted while reading a story to school children and told the World Trade Center had been hit--and he went on reading. Now, Olmert calls about a UN resolution when Bush is giving a speech and Bush leaves the stage to take the call. There exists no greater example of a master-servant relationship.”

Olmert gloated as he told Israelis how he had shamed US Secretary of State Condi Rice by preventing the American Secretary of State from supporting a resolution that she had helped to craft. Olmert proudly related how he had interrupted President Bush’s speech in order to give Bush his marching orders on the UN vote.

Israeli politicians have been bragging for decades about the control they exercise over the US government. In his final press conference, President Bush, deluded to the very end, said that the whole world respects America. In fact, when the world looks at America, what it sees is an Israeli colony.

Responding to mounting reports from the Red Cross and human rights organizations of Israel’s massive war crimes in Gaza, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted 33-1 on January 12 to condemn Israel for grave offenses against human rights.

On January 13, the London Times reported that Israelis have gathered on a hillside overlooking Gaza to enjoy the slaughter of Palestinians in what the Times calls “the ultimate spectator sport.”

It is American supplied F-16 fighter jets, helicopter gunships, missiles, and bombs that are destroying the civilian infrastructure of Gaza and murdering the Palestinians who have been packed into the tiny strip of land. What is happening to the Palestinians herded into the Gaza Ghetto is happening because of American money and weapons. It is just as much an attack by the United States as an attack by Israel. The US government is complicit in the war crimes.

Yet in his farewell press conference on January 12, Bush said that the world respects America for its compassion.

The compassion of bombing a UN school for girls?
The compassion of herding 100 Palestinians into one house and then shelling it?
The compassion of bombing hospitals and mosques?
The compassion of depriving 1.5 million Palestinians of food, medicine, and energy?
The compassion of violently overthrowing the democratically elected Hamas government?
The compassion of blowing up the infrastructure of one of the poorest and most deprived people on earth?
The compassion of abstaining from a Security Council vote condemning these actions?

And this is a repeat of what the Israelis and Americans did to Lebanon in 2006, what the Americans did to Iraqis for six years and are continuing to do to Afghans after seven years. And still hope to do to the Iranians and Syrians.

In 2002 I designated George W. Bush “the White House Moron.” If there ever was any doubt about this designation, Bush’s final press conference dispelled it.

Bush talked about connecting the dots, but Bush has failed to connect any dots for eight solid years. “Our” president was a puppet for a cabal led by Dick Cheney and a handful of Jewish neoconservatives, who took control of the Pentagon, the State Department, the National Security Council, the CIA, and “Homeland Security.” From these power positions, the neocon cabal used lies and deception to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, pointless wars that have cost Americans $3 trillion, while millions of Americans lose their jobs, their pensions, and their access to health care.

“These obviously very difficult economic times,” Bush said in his press conference, “started before my presidency.”

Bush has plenty of liberal company in failing to connect a $3 trillion dollar war with hard times. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities blames Bush’s tax cut, not the wars, for “the fiscal deterioration.”

Bush told the White House Press Corps, a useless collection of non-journalists, that the two mistakes of his invasion of Iraq were: (1) Putting up the “mission accomplished” banner on the aircraft carrier, which, he said, “sent the wrong message,” and (2) the absence of the alleged weapons of mass destruction that he used to justify the invasion.

Although Bush now admits that there were not any such weapons in Iraq, Bush said that the invasion was still the right thing to do.

The deaths of 1.25 million Iraqis, the displacement of 4 million Iraqis, and the destruction of a country’s infrastructure and economy are merely the collateral damage associated with “bringing freedom and democracy” to the Middle East.

Unless George W. Bush is the best actor in human history, he truly believes what he told the White House Press Corps.What Bush did not explain is how America is respected when its people put a moron in charge for eight years.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

What You Don’t Know About Gaza

It came to a surprise to me that my earlier post didn't get the positive response that I hoped for. Well I guess we all look at things differently. You from one angle and I, from another. Maybe we don't see eye to eye on certain issues but let us argue on the basis of facts. Let me clarify that I am not anti-Semitic, I am only an ordinary person who advocates the notion that every human should be treated with respect especially if they are mere civillians.

1st comment:

"Where was this cartoonist's outrage when for years the Israelis were being
bombed by Hamas?Palestinians have been known to never miss an opportunity to
miss an opportunity. Looks like they've missed yet another. If they're
serious
about wanting peace, they should sack Hamas and their terrorist ways
and begin
real negotiations."

2nd comment:

"You can't reason with idiots. Israel has gained nothing by allowing the wild
asses to have their own land. Hamas won't rest until Israel is gone. What would
a reasonable person do if he is constantly under bombardment by meat heads that
want nothing but his destruction The only peaceful Hamas is a dead Hamas. The
person who allows innocents into a place where he is firing rockets from, is the
killer of the innocent. Wake up stupid Americans. BTW I'm not Jewish."

3rd comment:

"The State of Israel was created by the United Nations in 1948. It is a
legitimate sovereign state. And as a state it has the right to defend itself.
Hamas was firing rockets at innocent Israeli civilians, so after plenty of
warning that Hamas had to stop the attacks, Israel was finally forced into this
defensive action.And to those who maintain that diplomacy had failed so Hamas
had no choice but to carry out these unprovoked attacks, you are dead wrong.
Israel has been in negotiations for years, and has made peace with both Egypt
and Jordan. But Hamas in it's charter calls for the utter destruction of Israel.
If Hamas had it's way it would murder each and every Israeli. So how can Israel
negotiate with a terrorist organization that wants to destroy it?If Hamas would
only stop the rocket attacks and acknowledge Israel's right to exist, then there
could be peace.The blood from the civilian casualties in Gaza is on the hands of
Hamas, not Israel."

Here are a few facts taken from the New York Times itself. I think it's quite a legitimate source to support my stand in the previous post.

What You Don’t Know About Gaza

By RASHID KHALIDI
Published: January 7, 2009

NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.

THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.

THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza’s air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

THE BLOCKADE Israel’s blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.

The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.

THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed.

WAR CRIMES The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Nor is it about “restoring Israel’s deterrence,” as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”

Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author of the forthcoming “Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East."

The real situation....

Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff creates artworks that call on the world to condemn Israeli holocaust of Gaza Nepos Libertas's blog

Carlos Latuff's statement: I'd like to beg all viewers to spread this image anywhere, as a way to expose Israeli war crimes against Palestinians. Use it on t-shirts, posters, banners. Reproduce it in zines, papers, magazines, and make it visible everywhere. Here is the high-resolution version for printing purposes: [ link ] Thank you in the name of every suffering Palestinian.