Friday 6 December 2013

Nelson Mandela; the third celebrity passing of 2013


Described by Obama as “Influential, courageous and profoundly good”, Nelson Rolihlala Mandela has passed away at the age of 95 due to pneumonia complications. For the past 3 months he was in a vegetative state and had difficulty in speaking. He joins Margaret Thatcher and Paul Walker as the third celebrity passing of 2013.




Whereas Paul Walker was famous for starring in 6 out of 7 Fast & Furious movies (death by car crash), Margaret Thatcher was famous for reducing the British budget deficit and overall debt by cutting governmental spending and increasing taxes, and improving essential services such as electricity;water and transport  by stripping away the power of the Trade Unions and privatizing (removing government control) the aforementioned industries (thus improving them through competition).  Like with anyone, there will be those who hate; with Walker it will be the haters of Fast and Furious movies and with Thatcher it will be the Labour party (who stood up for the national industries but bankrupted Britain through excessive spending) or the ignorant and opinionated Liberal Democrats (who are blocking Britain's recovery by offering free services while the economy is still trying to shrink its deficits as opposed to widen them).

Nelson Mandela was the First President of the Independent South Africa between 1994 and 1999. Before this, South Africa was under control of Britain 1806-1961 and even after independence, had many Dutch 'whites' (that were 'below' the British) controlling the land and oppressing the 'blacks' since 1652.
Only with a combination of the 1974 Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith (giving equal rights to Colored people) and 1983 Constitution Act (allowing Colored people to run for Parliament and Presidency) could Mandela run for President.

Mandela's controversy is in the form of his 28 years in Prison. Mandela supported the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a militant group backed by the South African Communist Party. The MK was the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC) and was responsible for 193 acts of Sabotage on government posts; machines; power facilities and crops, the 1983 Pretoria Church Street bomb (19 deaths and 217 injuries),1985 Amanzimtoti bomb (5 deaths and 40 injured), 1986 Magoo’s Bar bombing (3 dead, 69 injured), 1986 Newcastle court bombing (24 injured), 1987 Johannesburg court bombing (3 dead, 10 injured), 1987 Johannesburg command centre bombing (1 dead, 68 injured), 1988 Roodepoort bank bombing (4 dead, 18 injured), 1988 magistrate bomb detonation (3 dead),1988 Ellis Park bombing (2 dead, 37 injured), and attacks on Wimpy diners due to them being British.  In addition to this, there were anti-tank land mines planted by the MK in Northern Transvaal that killed approximately 24 people. At a minimum (judging by the figures present on Wikipedia), 424 people were killed under the MK and 483 injured.

The point however, is neither the death count nor the fact that Wikipedia was used; it is that Mandela fought against the oppressors and spent time in jail for what he did.  Mandela was not a terrorist, he was a freedom fighter. The differences are defined below:

Terrorist: Unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, civilian population in pursuit of political or social goals

Freedom Fighter: fighters in wars of national liberation against foreign occupiers or against oppressive domestic regimes they seek to overthrow

Whereas a freedom fighters are against foreign occupation or oppressive regimes, terrorists aim to strike fear into others and not generally oppressed. 
If Mandela is considered a terrorist because he attacked white nationalists in a nation where blacks were enslaved, segregated and treated as second class citizens (see statistics below- Stanford University), then many of the ‘heroes’ in history were ‘terrorists’



King James I could be considered a ‘terrorist’ as he was the one who started colonising the Americas (and killing many Native Americans); as were his successors.

America’s Founding Fathers (including President George Washington) may have been ‘freedom fighters’ against the British but they kept black slaves and considered them second class citizens.



Queen Victoria’s Empire was expansionist and racist (see below), she was technically a ‘terrorist’ due to the number of people that died fighting her expansionism




War hero Winston Churchill could be considered a ‘terrorist’  as he fought in the Second Boer War against the Dutch,French,Germans,Russians and Americans in Swaziland. In addition to this,  he had no qualms about using poison gas in Iraq against the Kurdish ‘freedom fighters’ in 1919 when Britain and the Arabs took over Iraq from the Ottomans and the Turks.



Bhagat Singh is a ‘freedom fighter’  but he killed British policeman John Saunders (who killed his friend Lala Lajpat Raj as he demanded Indian independence) and threw bombs inside the Central Legislative Assembly, shouting for, and demanding, the British treat Indians with respect.



Some of these individuals could be considered dictators. A dictator has the facets of a terrorist but is already in charge so his/her actions are only justified if the ‘freedom fighters’ are wrong in what they are doing. At the end of the day, whereas a ‘terrorist’ and a ‘freedom fighter’ differ in that terrorists do not fight for freedom (after all, Al Qaeda and Hezbollah want to wipe secularism from the face of the Earth), a ‘dictator’ is only evil if you disagree with his views. The  'racism' with many of these people should be given some sort of allowance as almost everyone was racist before Mandela, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Vallahbhai Patel (so yes, even Indian Gandhi was racist toward 'Blacks') opened their eyes.

Mandela is not a terrorist and deserves to rest in peace. A touching post by boxing legend Muhammad Ali (a man who does not even speak in public due to Parkinson’s disease) shows how much he admired him,

“What I will remember most about Mr. Mandela is that he was a man whose heart, soul and spirit could not be contained or restrained by racial and economic injustices, metal bars or the burden of hate and revenge. He taught us forgiveness on a grand scale. He inspired others to reach for what appeared to be impossible and moved them to break through the barriers that held them hostage mentally, physically, socially and economically. He made us realize, we are our brother's keeper and that our brothers come in all colors”




Thursday 24 January 2013

Star Wars Episode VII to be Directed by Star Trek Director



Yes that's right, J.J Abrams, the man who directed Star Trek and Star Trek: Into The Darkness as well as: Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, Super 8, Cloverfield and (one of the best movies of all time)  Armageddon is set to direct Star Wars Episode VII. Though he denied it several weeks ago, there were hints that he was still interested, particularly since Adams has said he was always a 'Warsie' rather than a 'Trekkie' ( apparently 'Trekkers' are true fans of Star Trek),

'I frankly feel that – I almost feel that, in a weird way, the opportunity for whomever it is to direct that movie, it comes with the burden of being that kind of iconic movie and series. I was never a big 'Star Trek' fan growing up, so for me, working on 'Star Trek' didn’t have any of that, you know, almost fatal sacrilege, and so, I am looking forward more than anyone to the next iterations of 'Star Wars'”'

 As well as this, Michal Arndt, who wrote Toy Story 3, Little Miss  Sunshine, Oblivion and Phineas and Ferb, will be doing the screenwriting.


Sunday 9 December 2012

Heaven's New Star: Sir Patrick Moore

Legendary British Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore has passed away at the age of 89. 
Moore, who was unmarried and without children, died surrounded by friends, family and his cat Ptolemy at his home; he had an infection and his stay at hospital last week was unsuccessful.




Moore was born in 1923 in Pinner,Middlesex and shortly after, moved to Sussex where he spent his life. Due to heart problems at a young age, he was home schooled but from this, he developed an interest in astronomy from GF Chambers' book, "The Story of the Solar System". By the age of 11 he became the youngest member of the British Astronomical Association, by 13 he wrote a paper on craters on the moon,by 14 he ran a small observatory as his mentor (who previously ran the observatory) died in a car accident. At the age of 16 he began wearing his trademark monocle as one eye was weaker than the other, and by 19 he had a full set of dentures. 

Moore lied about his age during World War II so he could join the RAF at the age of 16;he eventually became a flight lieutenant after training in Canada and met Albert Einstein and Orville Wright while on leave in New  York.  It was during the war he met the love of his life Lorna before she tragically died after the ambulance she was driving was bombed. Moore continued being sore about this, with statements such as: 'if I saw the entire German nation sinking into the sea, I could be relied upon to help push it down' and 'the only good Kraut is a dead Kraut'

Moore turned down a scholarship to Cambridge twice; the first time due to the war and the second due to wanting to stand on his 'own two feet'

Since his first book in 1952, "Guide to the Moon"  (retitled "Patrick Moore on the Moon") Moore used a 1908 Woodstock typewriter for all of books; he could type at 90 words per minute with two fingers. Moore was also a keen chess player, cricketer,golfer,violinist,pianist and xylophone player.


At the age of 63 Moore became President of the British Astronomical Association, in 1968 he became an OBE and in 1988, a CBE. He was knighted in the 2001 New Year list "for services to the popularisation of science and to broadcasting". Moore's weekly show "The Sky at Night" broadcast for 55 years, being the longest-running show to have the same presenter; only missing one episode when Moore had a near fatal bout of food poisoning in 2004.

First the Rocket Man Neil Armstrong and now the Silver Surfer Moore, 2012 is not a good year for celebrities. Rest in Peace


Monday 3 December 2012

Pregnant Princess and Hitched Hef

Approximately three months after the controversial nude photographs in France, Duchess of Cambridge Catherine Middleton has announced she is pregnant with a potential heir to the throne. Kate, 30 is already the Princess Consort (wife of a Prince) and her husband William,30 is second in line to the throne.


Not to be outdone, across the Atlantic Ocean, Hugh Hefner has announced his engagement to Playmate Crystal Harris. The 86 year old media mogul and 26 year old blonde bombshell are giving marriage another go after Harris called off the wedding back in June 2011, five days before their big day. Crystal seems to have captured Hef's heart due to the latter wanting to follow a monogamous relationship (this very rarely happens!).



A Merry Christmas indeed!

Saturday 1 December 2012

Breakthrough in Palestine state recognition



Palestine has finally been recognised as a country after 65 long years. UN General assembly 67/19, which had  a majority of 138 nations (including France, Japan and the V-BRICS emerging economies of Vietnam;Brazil;Russia;India;China and South Africa) voted in favour of Palestine being a non-member nation of the UN. This does not mean Palestine will automatically get official borders, nor does it mean the fighting in the Middle East will stop, but it does mean Palestine gets to tell the UN its point of view collectively as a nation.

This was merely days after the week long Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian militants, which was triggered when the militants attacked Israeli forces for blocking the Gaza Strip; Israel retaliated and killed Ahmed Jabari, acting head of Hamas' (one of Palestine's two main parties-the other being Fatah) military wing; the intention of Israel was to disable the militants through airstrikes on their bases and weapons stashes. Palestine's retaliation was to fire over 1400 Iranian and Russian supplied rockets over the border into Israel; over 400 were intercepted by Israel's 'Iron Dome' defense system with near 90% of those missiles being aimed at populated areas. The outcome of this war was a ceasefire between both Israel and Palestine with both sides claiming victory ( Israeli casualties: 2 soldiers killed,
20 wounded,4 civilians killed and 219 injured. Palestinian casualties: 55-120 soldiers killed [Palestine has fewer estimated while Israel has more],29 wounded, 57-105 Palestinian civilians killed [Palestine has more deaths estimated while Israel has less], 971 wounded [Palestinian figure] and 8 Palestinians executed by Hamas
). There was also a bomb detonated on a bus in Tel Aviv where 28 were injured.


 The fact that Israel wins the skirmishes and the wars, and the news of ever decreasing Palestinian land ownership, makes Israel look like an aggressor. Jews can not be solely blamed for Israel's actions as not all Jews are Israeli and not all of Israel's citizens are aggressive Islamophobes; Israel is a democracy and its policies change by whichever party is in power. The ultra-Orthodox and Zionist members are the ones truly against Palestine but do not make up a majority. Looking at the other side of the coin, the land acquisition by Israel has caused a rise of Islamists who brainwash normal Muslims into being anti-semitic and helping them carry out atrocities ranging from suicide bombings in Palestine to international terror attacks such as 9/11. The Islamists themselves are brainwashed not by 'freedom fighters' but fascists who want things their way. Islamists are seen worse than  Zionists as they are also against the West and other non-Muslim countries like India.

 The essay below describes the history of Israel and Palestine and who is 'right' or 'wrong'



Since the 1800s Jews and Muslims have been living in relative peace with one another in Palestine. The Holy City of Jerusalem and Temple Mount were under Muslim control. Holy to both religions, Muslims believe their Prophet Muhammed visited Heaven from the Temple Mount; before that the Jews had the Holy Temple on the mount and it was prophesised that the Messiah would come if it was rebuilt. As well as being a minority at the time, Palestine’s Jews agreed it was wrong to ‘force’ the Messiah by building the Temple through war. 
From the late 1800s the number of people from both religions have been increasing in Palestine; more Jews came as they were mistreated by anti-Semitics like Chimielnicki and Hitler and had the ability to emigrate as automobiles were developed as a means of transport. The number of Muslims increased as Arabs from surrounding countries expelled those who wanted a Palestine independent of these countries. Arabia was under control of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire at this time and both Jordan and Palestine were part of the same country .
After the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire (allied with Germans) was replaced by the British Empire. 


In 1922 it was proposed that British Palestine would be made up of two areas : Transjordan (77% the size of British Palestine, no Jewish immigration) and Palestine (23% of its size, for all religions).
Jews legally purchased land to live with the Palestinians and by 1943, paid $560,000 for nearly 400,000 acres (6% land).  By 1947 land purchase increased to 463,000 acres.
The rising number Jews in Palestine saw Muslims (Arab and non Arab) from other countries expel them; approximately 900,000 were kicked out from 1948 to the early 1970s. A further 200,000 left on their own accord between 1948 and 1952.
Many of the expelled Jews (naturally) went to live in Palestine as they thought that was the only place where they were welcome. 56% of Palestinian immigration between 1948 and 1952 was from the expelled Jews.
The more Zionist Jews (forming in Europe and governing holocaust survivors after World War Two) added to Jewish immigration, going as far as forcing holocaust survivors into Palestine and prohibiting anywhere else for the Jews to go to (even for health treatment).  During World War Two, the Zionists even fought the British  to lift immigration quotas (75,000 for the years between 1940 and 1944, set in the 1939 White Paper), killing 996 British between 1939 and 1948. 70,000 Jews arrived in Palestine illegally during the White Paper quotas being in force. After continued pressure from the Zionists and the USA, quotas were lifted and more Jews went to live in Palestine. See the tables:




Year

Jews

Muslims
Jewish (non ruling people) Percentage
1533-1539
5000
145 000
3.18%
1690-1691
2000
219 000
0.86%
1800
7000
246 000
2.54%
1890
43000
432 000
8.08%
1914
94 000
525 000
13.64%
1922
84 000
589 000
11.17%
1931
175 000
760 000
16.94%
1947
630 000
1 181 000
31.97%
1960
1 911 000
1 090 000
61.42%
1967
2 374 000
1 204 000
63.88%
1975
2 959 000
1 447 000
64.77%
1985
3 517 000
2 166 000
59.52%
1995
4 522 000
3 241 000
55.74%
2000
4 969 000
3 891 000
53.37%





Year

Jews

Muslims
Muslim (non ruling people) Percentage
1949
1 013 900
111 500
9.49%
1959
1 858 800
159 200
7.62%
1969
2 506 800
314 500
10.73%
1979
3 218 400
481 200
12.54%
1989
3 717 100
655 200
14.36%
1999
4 872 800
934 100
15.04%
2008
5 569 200
1 240 000
16.81%


After World War Two, the ever-increasing amount of Jews from Europe, and withdrawal of the British, the UN decided to partition areas within the new Palestine (but still keep it as one country); the Jews would get 56% of Palestine (mostly the Negev Desert) as that area contained more Jews  (499,000 Jews and  438,000 Arabs) ), and the Arabs would get 42% of the land (a population of 818,000 ‘Palestinian’ Arabs and 10,000 Jews ) ;Jerusalem would be a special UN administrative zone .  
The Arabs did not accept the land allocation in favour of the Jews so there were several conflicts that followed, the two most relevant were Arab-Israeli War of 1948 and the Six-Day War of 1967. The 1948 war was an official war between two new states: Israel (the new Jewish state) and Palestine (the Muslim state), after a year-long civil war between the two religions (regulated by the British for it was their last year of occupation).  It was initiated by Muslims refusing to share Palestine with an increasing number of Jews. The Six-Day War was initiated by Jews as a pre emptive strike to Arabian sabre-rattling . Key armies from each war were Egypt, Syria and Lebanon (supported in varying degrees by Jordan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iraq) against Israel (primarily financed by the USA since they had the highest population of Jews outside of Israel).
As the Jews won most of wars, they slowly gained control and much of Palestine became Israel ; a nation where Jews were the majority and had their own government . To keep excessive bloodshed and further war, after the Six-Day War they allowed the Muslims to keep the Temple Mount as they wanted to keep the peace. 


The end of the Six-Day War saw the rise of three things: terrorism, war and oil prices.  

The Arabs’ retaliation to their defeats was to increase oil prices and restrict supply. Despite the conflicts, the Middle East began to calm-notably Egypt and Israel making peace in 1979  and Jordan and Israel becoming friends in 1994. 
Unfortunately, entire countries that support Palestine and the Muslim occupation of the Temple Mount have little care for the inhabitants of Palestine; Jordan massacred and exiled over 2000 Muslims wanting to be part of Palestine in 1970 as the Hashemite King wanted to maintain control and did not believe in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)'s extremism ; Kuwait and Saudi Arabia exiled Palestinians between 1990 and 1991 as the PLO sided with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein:-leader of Kuwait’s enemy. 
Palestine's (now unified) government parties- Fatah (PLO) and Hamas, both anti-Israeli and with members responsible for suicide bombings and attacks on Israelis (hindering the peace process),fought each other in 2007; the total number of casualties were approximately 616 (98 of which were officially civilians). It came to the point that Israelis had to intervene to stop it . 

With the Israel-Palestine conflicts, the death count between 1948 and 2009 was over 14,500. If one measure the death count between the time of partition (1920) to today but also include the wars involving neighbouring Arab countries, the Israeli death count is under a fifth of the Arabs’. This, combined with Israel taking away more Palestinian land, made many Muslims blame Israel solely for this. As ‘excessive’ as Israel is, they do everything in retaliation to attacks caused by Palestine's government parties and various Islamists groups; Israel takes more land from Palestine as both retaliation and a means of policing the Palestinians, Israel’s retaliation then brainwashes fundamentalists into believing the West have caused this, the Islamist attacks cause further Israeli land acquisition; this is a vicious cycle.
The official and (on-going) peace process between the Arabs and Israelis was to also be hindered at great costs from another entity: Al Qaeda. Formally headed by Osama bin Laden (left) and now Ayman al Zawahiri (right), it and its partner cells (the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria and many members working in Fatah and Hamas), were behind the increasing number of terrorist attacks in non-Muslim countries, most notably 9/11:-an attack on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia-killing approximately 3000 civilians.  
Like other Arab countries, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri used the plight of the Palestinians as a ruse. From reading and implementing theories by Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, their actual wish was for the lands of Palestine and Saudi Arabia (the latter of which had Americans stationed there during the Gulf War) to be kept strictly Muslim at all costs ;  they declared war even on existing Islamic  countries that are allies with the Israel and/or the USA (see bin Laden telling Saudi Arabians and Emiratis to rise against their government in his fatwas, bin Laden funding the Luxor Massacre in 1997 , and Al Zawahiri's branch of Al Qaeda assassinating peace-making Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat in 1981. Al Qaeda recruits people from countries with disputes between Muslims and non-Muslims (see Afghanistan; Pakistan and Bangladesh having anti-Hindus and anti-Indians, Syria and Yemen being anti-Israeli, and Egypt; Sudan and Nigeria’s apartheid between Christians and Muslims) to wipe out the ‘infidelic’ non Muslims.