Poor Persians

I have never really wanted to debate the situation of Iran, the rhetoric from both sides just seemed mundane to me, the same old story that we’ve seen in two other countries in the last 8 years. But the extent to which BBC have sunk to new lows with this article has made me have to break my silence.


It turns out Iran have revealed the existence of a second Uranium enrichment plant. The introduction to the article, under the title “Iran has second enrichment site”, reads:

Iran has revealed the existence of a second uranium enrichment plant, the UN
nuclear watchdog has confirmed.

Tehran made the announcement earlier this week in a letter to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohammed ElBaradei.

This has clearly angered “The world”, with the US and UK set to accuse Iran of “concealing the plant”. But wait a second, how exactly did the IAEA find out about this enrichment plant? If the article is correct, then a letter was sent to Mr. El-Baradei directly. Well that doesn’t really sound like they are concealing anything to me. In fact, according to their responsibilities as NPT signatories they have done what is required of them.

That alone is nothing to be shocked about, after all the hypocritical rhetoric of the world superpower is nothing new, especially considering they are also NPT signatories who have very openly broken the rules by supplying Israel with Nuclear weapons contrary to the rule set forth in article I, that states:

Each nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes not to transfer to any
recipient whatsoever nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or
control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly; and not
in any way to assist, encourage, or induce any non-nuclear-weapon State to
manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive
devices, or control over such weapons or explosive devices.

What is disturbing is the blatantly obvious twist given to the story by the BBC. Iran had previously admitted to the existence of one Uranium enrichment site, Natanz. The new site is believed to be somewhere in the area around the city of Qom, and is not yet operational. It is also building a Uranium conversion plant in an area called Ishfan. Apparently, this later site is the worrying one as it is used to convert Uranium ore in to metal. Really, that’s the first I’ve heard of it? After all, earlier this very month the IAEA clearly stated that Iran has been helpful in ensuring safeguard measures are in place, which include making sure metal is not developed. Ok, they haven’t stopped enrichment, but this is their right, what reason has been given that they should stop, except for the lies that are being spread by “the World”.

It seems to me that the powers that be are beginning to lose all credibility, they should thank God they have HAARP to help them out!!

s"wine" flu

This will be a nice and simple post. The following is a list of the number of deaths worldwide as a result of all the major diseases, accidents and illnesses as computed by the world health organization:

Worldwide Deaths in millions
Coronary heart disease 7.20
Stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases 5.71
lower respiratory infections 4.18
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 3.02
Diarrhoeal diseases 2.16
HIV/AIDS 2.04
Tuberculosis 1.46
Trachea, bronchus, lung cancers 1.32
Road traffic accidents 1.27
Prematurity and low birth weight 1.18

For the sake of it let’s throw in Malaria and influenza at 881,000 in 2006 and 250-500,000 yearly respectively.

Now let’s take a look at the flipside, how many deaths have occurred worldwide as a result of swine flu? The first swine flu death occurred on April 13th 2009. As of June 15th the total death toll was 164. So to compute the number of worldwide deaths expected over the coming year simply multiply 164 by 6 which gives 984. not a very frightening death toll if you consider more people die per week from malaria (1690), and that isn't even on the list of top ten killers. so let’s try and make the figures a little more respectable in comparison to the media attention its receiving, lets add a margin of error of 100,000 (pretty big margin don’t you think)? Wait a minute; the death toll still doesn’t reach the accepted range of figures for influenza, i.e. regular flu. So why all the commotion?

Don’t need to search long until you find this article:

GlaxoSmithKline led drug makers higher while British Airways was the hardest hit in a general sell-off of airline stocks in London. In Europe, shares in Swiss drug maker Roche jumped.

Vaccines from Roche, which sells Tamiflu, and GSK, maker of Relenza, have been shown to work against viral samples of the new disease. The drugs were also used to help protect against outbreaks of bird flu in Asia, providing windfall profits for the companies.

But wait a minute, I thought Tamiflu was ineffective? Well I guess Roche have found a way of securing their losses, what a coincidence!! In all honesty, I feel sorry for people who believe this is anything more than overhyped scare tactics, just like sars, bird flu, mad cow disease, and to a greater extent 9/11 and WMD's. You people all need to wake up now. Have you never heard the saying fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me! Well sorry to be the bearer of bad news but this is at least the 5th time you've all been fooled since the turn of the century, doesn’t speak volumes of your mental capabilities now does it?

I don't know about you lot, but I'm off to book a cheap flight to Mexico, and if I get swine flu you know what I will do about it, absolutely nothing. If my immune system can fight off malaria, typhoid and influenza the whole pig thing will be a walk in the park for it!!

The sickening double standards

I recently read a post by Ibrahim Yusuf about Bibi Netenyahu's speech highlighting the so called lack of preconditions set on the Palestinian state in order to begin the lie that is a peace process. I don't want to discuss the speech, I think our brother here did a very good job in highlighting the falsification of the entire notion of an unconditional negotiation for the settlement of the world’s most unjust conflict. You can say Darfur is worse (a topic that I will discuss in future blogs), or maybe the struggle of the Tamils, but there is one fundamental difference between the I/P conflict and all others. Simply put, Israel is the last remaining colony in the modern world, and it will remain so until Palestine is established. You can come up with all types of arguments to say this is false, the land was promised to the Jews in the Bible, Palestine never existed, and I’ve even heard the argument that the land was uninhabited prior to the establishment of Israel. But no right minded person can agree with any of these claims, after all until a few years ago Kosovo didn't exist, it was a region in a country, much the same way that Palestine was a region in two great empires (the Ottoman and British), no one claimed it didn’t exist then. The fact of the matter is Palestinians lived in Palestine for centuries, maybe it was inhabited by Jews 2000 years ago, but America was inhabited by Indians 200 years ago, what do you think the world would do if those few that are left began reproducing like bunnies, got the backing of China, put the white man into reserves, and claimed they have no rights to the land? Basing a claim on a 2000 year old book is illogical to say the least. You may believe it’s the word of God, but if so surely God would be just to all, not a select few, so again such an argument is rather fallible. a lot of arguments are being made on both sides of this conflict, one side tends to speak logic in the form of human rights and the right to self-determination, the other sticks to one particular argument, any statements against Israel are automatically anti-Semitic, very mature don't you think? But from all these points that are made I’ve rarely heard reference to the most blatantly obvious, the sheer double standard between the rights of both parties. How can you expect Palestine to recognize Israel when Palestine itself is a non-existent entity? The right of recognition is reserved for member nations of this world, the state of Alabama isn’t charged with recognizing Israel, and since Palestine is not a country but an occupied mass of little Islands surrounded by the state that is Israel, how can it be expected to recognize an independent nation? As for the other key claim, Palestinians must renounce violence, my Lord this is the mother of all double standards. Let’s just take a logical approach to this matter, using international law as the set standard. First of all attacks on settlements cannot be considered attacks on civilians according to Israeli laws, they are, according to the Israeli Government, legal occupations and the only way for them to be legal is for them to be military outposts, as is highlighted in Geneva convention article 49. I am Muslim I cannot condone the murder of women, children or the infirmed, it is wrong no matter what the situation, but then again settlers should know they are revoking their right to call themselves civilians when they relocate to a 'legal' outpost. Before anyone says anything regarding this point of view, it is very similar to this, only a great deal more logical considering violent protestors all over the world are fired on with fire hoses and tear gas, not bullets.

Secondly, the rate of civilian deaths is 1 Israeli to every 100 Palestinian during the most recent conflict, which side appears more violent when you look at it from this perspective, especially considering this is 10 times the reprisal ratio ordered by Hitler in Italy (335 for 33 Nazi's killed). Renouncing violence is not something readily acceptable to any occupied populace. Imagine for a second you live in Manchester. The Irish get drunk and decide to have a little fun, they invade England, take over the northwest, force people to live in little enclaves of land and be wholly dependent on them for everything from medical supplies to food; refuse you the right to visit family members in London; constantly harass you, making you feel impotent amongst a variety of different humiliations that the independent press have made common knowledge for anyone willing to search for the truth instead of falling for peter Jennings hook line and sinker. Tell me, what would you do? Would renouncing violence be high on your list of priorities? Why aren't the Tamil Tigers forced to renounce violence by the international community in order to negotiate? Why is Israel subject to one set of rules that are completely contradictory to the laws of the world?

I don’t need to answer these questions because anyone with the slightest will to ask themselves such questions already knows the answers, but for those who don’t answer me these simple questions, who owns all the mainstream media outlets? What do almost all US presidents and the British Royal families have in common? And where does the British Royal families’ ancestry lead to? If you can answer these questions your almost enlightened.

Finally, the right to resist is a right possessed by any occupied or oppressed population, again according to the Geneva Convention. To ask Palestinians to castrate themselves and forgo this right is the greatest possible insult to them, tantamount to advocating genocide as that is what will evidently happen if this right is given away, history has proven that. Granted this right to resist doesn’t extend to the murder of civilians, and for this I condemn Palestinian resistance movements, but it makes no sense to condemn one side and not the other. For example, collective punishment is a crime under international law, yet Gaza is the world’s largest open air prison and Bibi and his cronies can get away with it without so much as a whisper from the international community. The typical hasbara justification, the Gazans voted in terrorists and must therefore face the consequences of their actions. Any Zionist out there please tells me do you all believe the bull that comes out of your mouths? Again I repeat collective punishment is a crime under international law!!

The mind of a Sudanese expat

The beautiful thing about this world is our ability to interact with people from a variety of differing colours, creeds, religious orientations, cultural norms, standards of education and so on. It truly allows one to appreciate the vast differences between us all. However it doesn't take a genius to notice differences, but it takes talent to spot the similarities we all share.

I was born in the UK surrounded by Caucasian atheists. This was quite a variant from my cultural heritage, an African Arab from a Muslim background. Whilst I was younger it was difficult to remain faithful to my heritage whilst at the same time trying to 'fit in' with society, a problem that I know a lot of people in a similar position to mine face. At sixteen this all changed, I matured a lot quicker than expected. The reason being I moved back to Sudan.

This experience was a reality check in its own right. Imagine living life a certain way, growing up surrounded by sex, drugs and loud music (rock and roll is dead); no one bothers you, or cares about what you do; and most of all the general populace is well educated. Then imagine being taken out of such a nice and cozy life and thrown into the fifth worst city in the world to live based on standard of living and quality of utilities.

The purpose of this blog is to allow me to share with you all what it is like to have lived and experienced 2 very different cultures, (3 if you include my current nation of residence, the UAE), what this has allowed me to learn, and how this has shaped my outlook of the world as a whole. Topics discussed will vary from sports to politics and everything in between. I will inform you in the labels what each post is relative to, but be aware that I will discuss matters that are both trivial and extremely controversial. Anyone who follows this blog from now on and wishes to have an input, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I will do my best to allow you to have an input. Please keep any comments clean relative to any specific posts, no anti-Semitism (in both senses of the matter considering the fact that Palestinians are Semitic), no racism of any sort and no insulting other commentators, we are all entitled to an opinion, so please respect those of others.