4. And in Afghanistan, Canada has brought a considerable measure of self-governance to its puppets. Not really:

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said he tried to warn the police commander away from Sunday’s event, much like he warned Canadians away from Spin Boldak on Monday.

“We informed the Canadian Forces to avoid patrolling the border areas because our intelligence units had information that suicide attackers were in the areas and wanted to target Canadian or government forces,” Khalid said.

“Despite informing the Canadians, they went to those areas anyway.”

The Canadian military bristled at the suggestion the deaths and injuries could have been avoided, saying the Canadian Forces make the decisions on where its soldiers will patrol.

“We regularly receive threat warnings and obviously we go where we want to, when we want to in our area of operation,” said Lt.-Cmdr. Pierre Babinsky.

“We obviously take notice of these warnings but our aim is to operate freely within our area of operation despite those.”

Note that their area of operation is … all of Afghanistan. And, hold on, wait, this is not colonization?

1. Kosovo, NATO’s other colony (next to Afghanistan), has declared itself the 54th American state, after Canada, Israel and Britain.

2. “Democracy” rears its ugly b(h)utt(o) yet again as voting begins in Pakistan. This, of course, is the “best revenge” (00:31).

I can’t go jogging. Even the dog hasn’t had a proper walk in a while.

3. Frustrated by the fact that the people of Sderot cannot walk their dogs (indeed, one even died!) because of the not-so-constant barrage of the world’s most underwhelming rockets, Israel’s Prime Asshole Ehud Olmert has given a “free hand” to the Israeli occupation army to carry out as many more massacres¹ (of, well, humans) as it wants in the Gaza Strip. If the people of Sderot can’t walk their dogs, by dog, then the people of Gaza can’t access electricity, fuel, clean water, food, or medical supplies: “…there is no justification for demanding we allow residents of Gaza to live normal lives while shells and rockets are fired from their streets and courtyards at Sderot and other communities in the south.” He also reminded the people of Gaza that the world’s longest-lasting military occupation as well as the total land, sea and air blockade is “normal.”

1. Note that the headline talks about the “activist” who was killed, and not about, well, his wife and children. Imagine if it said, “Blast kills woman and children.” But, of course not — who will cry for the dogs of Sderot!?

One

So, as I described in my last post, on Wednesday February 6, Zionists set up a display about “Islamic State Apartheid” in Vari Hall at York. I was two hours late for class and felt too embarrassed to enter, although my professor John Saul is very cool (and was involved in the anti-apartheid and anti-colonial struggles in Southern Africa), so I hung out and took a look what was going on. As I noted earlier, the aim was to “trivialize the use of the word “apartheid” when associated with Israel.”

There was a large crowd of students gathered in front of the display — set up in the middle of Israeli Apartheid Week. A lot of Muslim students were angered. Other Palestine-solidarity activists were there, too. One could notice “circles of debate” where a Zionist was debating with someone else, and a sizable crowd would gather around. I noticed one pro-Israeli speaking lyrically to a group of about six or seven students about how Israel was founded by freedom fighters, fighting for self-determination. How Israel was a democracy. How there was no one to back Israel up, and how Golda Meir went around to Jewish organizations in the United States asking for money. How Israel was not a racist state. This, that, and the other.

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I have some observations I’d like to point out, but for now this video will have to do. Enjoy!

Update:

Last Wednesday, Zionists at York organized a display in Vari Hall, labeled “Islamic State Apartheid.” The aim, a Zionist acquaintance of mine told me later, was to trivialize the use of the word “apartheid” when associated with Israel. By pegging every problem in Muslim societies — and make no mistake, these problems are real — as “apartheid,” the idea was to deflect attention away from Israel and focus it, instead, on Muslim societies. There is an implicit assertion here that there is a more-or-less homogenous application of “Islamic” values within these countries, that the racism, sexism, etc. prevalent in some of these countries is a result of “Islamic culture.” There is no attempt at an actual, historical analysis of what these terms mean and how they play out in these countries. For instance, racial discrimination in Saudi Arabia has less to do with skin colour, as such, and more to do with national origin. The roots of this racial discrimination lie in the systemic super-exploitation of migrant labour from the rest of Asia (including other parts of the Middle East). Xenophobia doesn’t take on the same terms as it does in the West, but it exists, and populists try to enact policies of “Saudiization” of the work force.

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I’ve been alerted to a situation in Dubai where someone was, apparently, detained arbitrarily. The person hasn’t been charged and seems to have to jump through a lot of hoops. This is not correct, and it’s certainly deplorable in any case to hold someone without even laying charges. I am not going to defend the autocratic regimes in Dubai and the rest of the UAE, and I can certainly feel for someone who has — apparently — been detained arbitrarily. Yet the racism and stark ignorance that pervades the discussion about Dubai is indicative of more than just bitterness toward the regime. It’s Orientalism 101.

I don’t claim to be an expert on the UAE or anything, but what I am talking about in the following isn’t rocket science.

First, Dubai is a major transportation and commercial hub. This is true because of its coastal location in the Persian Gulf. This is also true of its airport, which is perhaps one of the busiest airports in the world — but certainly the busiest in the region of Middle East and South Asia. On any given day, up to 100,000 people pass through this airport, which translates into nearly 35 million every year. People in all shapes, shades, sizes, from all class backgrounds, dressed in all manner of clothing: “ultra-conservative” as well as “ultra-liberal” pass through this airport. And, in fact, this is also generally true of Dubai itself. In the streets, you can see people wearing skirts and tank tops, as well as people wearing burqas. What does this mean? Just that if you’re traveling through Dubai airport, don’t presume that you have to dress conservatively. In fact, you don’t.

Yes there is plenty of racism in Dubai. If we accept that racism is a structural mechanism of discrimination (rather than just the surface expression of racial slurs and profiling), then we see that the racism in Dubai is the massive, racialized super-exploitation of migrant labour from Asia. When we say Asia, we are not talking about East Asia, but rather, South Asia and the Philippines.

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Well, I had no idea:

King met Malcolm X several times in private, although most accounts cite a sole meeting between the two at the United Nations, he said.

King and Malcolm X informally met at a the home of a friend — actor and playwright Ossie Davis and his wife, Ruby Dee — about seven to 10 times, Willis said. They would arrive without an entourage or bodyguards, and would talk about everything from politics to food, he said. Sometimes, they were joined by author James Baldwin; movie stars Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman and Marlon Brando; and musician Harry Belafonte, all supporters of the civil-rights movement, he said.

Willis met Dee, who told him they would meet and talk about topics from great books to what their children were going through.

“The two of them would get together and have great conversations about everything. It was great to get that detail,” Willis said to the students. “I had it from Ruby’s lips to my ears, and now I’m telling you.”

But both men also knew they were marked for death, he said.

“Malcolm said (to King), “If they kill you, they can’t let me live,’ ” Willis said.

I don’t understand why anyone who watches this video would think badly of communism:
1. You can be a maniac who gets kicks out of power-tripping over kids, teaching them to pray to (glorious leader) Fidel Castro instead of (won’t deliver on the goods) Jesus Christ in return for candy. This is an ideal job for about 73% of the population.
2. Typical criticisms of communism revolve around shortages of consumer goods. In this version of Castro’s Cuba, though, you can have all the candy you want. Ever.
3. The chalkboard clearly says, “COMMUNISM IS GOOD.”

Update: I think the absolute best part of the video is at about 1:06, when the guy says, “Let’s see if your Jesus will bring you some candy now and produce a miracle.” Then he looks up to his left as if waiting for lightning to fall. It’s fantastic.

Hey dumbass, guess what: Other people need to take out books from the library, too.

No, it’s true. They’ve proven this empirically. I saw it in a book I took out from the library. I noticed that fact because you happened to underline it. Along with everything else on that page. Which, apparently, was important to you. Thank you, also, for writing down in the margins several key words that you noticed in the paragraphs. That they were of no significance to the argument or the book in general explains something. You also happened to underline and highlight most of Chapters 3 and 4. I wonder why you ignored the rest of the book.

Maybe because you’re an idiot?

Remember, signing out a book from the library is a privilege. The act does not confer ownership of the book to you. So don’t write in it. This isn’t socialism you punk ass bitch.

Canada’s Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty says there are to be no cuts in income taxes. However, there will be — and need to be — cuts in corporate taxes. The reason for this is that the heavy hand of government needs to stay out of the economy.

The putrid hypocrisy of neoliberalism should be evident here: it doesn’t even conform to neoclassical economic theory. Here, at the least, individuals (or households) are seen as — for all intents and purposes — equivalents to firms (or corporations). Thus, to make the economy truly competitive — and we know that the particularly ardent free market ideologues (e.g., Austrian/Chicago school) argue this — one must eliminate all taxes. I would say, if your excuse is economic competitiveness, you should at least look to cutting taxes proportionately. That’s probably not going to happen.

The populism previously present in the Conservative platform (personal tax cuts, a little bit) is dissipating, leaving us with little more than baldfaced brown-nosing of corporations — that is, “enabling” conditions for business competitiveness. Whatever that means.

Update: In the October mini-budget the Conservatives did schedule tax cuts in personal income — and they said this is good for the economy. It doesn’t save most people a lot of money: money that, in the aggregate, would probably be well-spent on something like, I don’t know, national childcare. The post above refers to their plans for the future.