Since February, the failure of western governments to do anything more than go through the motions of "condemning" the violence by Bahrain's rulers has been a dismal vindication for those of us who have long maintained that in the clash between our interests and our values, the former almost always trump the latter. Nonetheless, the sheer brazenness with which our elected leaders have continued to cosy up to, and apologise for, Bahrain's tyrants, is startling. Referring to the Obama administration's decision to emphasise "stability over majority rule", a US official was quoted in March as saying: "Everybody realised that Bahrain was just too important to fail."Quote from: Let them eat doughnuts: the US response to Bahrain's oppression :While the west averts its eyes, Bahrain's people are subjected to brutal suppression by Mehdi Hasan at Guardian.co.uk, July 11, 2011
Keith Olbermann takes on President Obama once again for his failure to live up to his campaign promises in which Obama claimed to be on the side of the American people and not just the rich and powerful and that he believed in Social and Economic justice.
" Keith Olbermann Issues Blistering Warning To Obama Over Potential Cuts To Social Security And Medicare " Huffington Post , July 12, 2011
Keith Olbermann tore into President Obama for contemplating a compromise with the Republicans over the debt ceiling that includes cuts in Social Security and major changes to Medicare.
Obama has repeatedly offered to raise the age of Medicare eligibility, and has put Social Security cuts firmly on the table in his attempts to craft a deal with the GOP to raise the debt ceiling.
In a Special Comment on his Monday show, Olbermann spoke out strongly against any tinkering with Medicare and Social Security. He delivered what he called a "sermon" about what he called America's "greatest accomplishment": the social safety net that includes the two programs.
Olbermann then issued a stinging warning to President Obama about what might occur if he agreed to alter Medicare and Social Security:
"I cannot foresee what will happen politically if you craft a compromise to a manufactured political crisis ... I cannot forecast if you have made yourself unelectable next year or if there's just enough greed and self-serving amnesia to reduce such an attack on that safety net to a political blip ... I find I cannot forecast if the rest of us, battered by your compromises here and your 'it's a start's' there, will bother any longer to defend you. I find I can't forecast if I will still be able to support you ... if this deal with the Republicans takes a dollar away from those people who do not have a dollar to spare while preserving the millions for those who have millions more, if this deal, sir, keeps intact funding the mechanisms we have for killing people while cutting the mechanisms we have for keeping people alive and healthy, then it is a betrayal of everything that makes this country great."
UPDATE: Bahrain
Let them eat doughnuts: the US response to Bahrain's oppression :While the west averts its eyes, Bahrain's people are subjected to brutal suppression by Mehdi Hasan at Guardian.co.uk, July 11, 2011
Pity the poor people of Bahrain. They have been shot, beaten, tear-gassed – and patronised. On 7 March, at the height of the pro-democracy protests in the tiny Gulf island kingdom, a crowd gathered outside the US embassy in Manama, the capital, carrying signs that read "Stop supporting dictators" and "Give me liberty or give me death". A US embassy official emerged from the building with a box of doughnuts for the protesters, prompting a cleric in the crowd to remark: "These sweets are a good gesture, but we hope it is translated into practical actions."The brutal crackdown in Bahrain against peaceful protesters is supported by the US and the West. They are more concerned with the interests of the flow of oil and a positive environment for rapacious capitalism .
It hasn't been. Syria was subjected to sanctions and Libya to air strikes; Bahrain, however, was rewarded with visits from the Pentagon's two most senior officials – the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mike Mullen, and the then defence secretary, Robert Gates. Disgracefully, at the same time as peaceful protesters were being rounded up and imprisoned, both men offered full-throated endorsements of King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa's brutal regime.
The Sunni Khalifas have ruled Shia-majority Bahrain – officially a constitutional monarchy – since 1783. Bahrain's prime minister since 1971, Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa – the king's uncle – has the dubious distinction of being the longest-serving unelected prime minister in the world. Unemployment stands at 15% – the highest in the Gulf – and Shias have long complained of discrimination and disenfranchisement.
The Arab spring reached Bahrain on Valentine's Day; protesters – both Sunni and Shia – arrived in Manama's Pearl Square on 14 February to demand political freedoms, democratic reforms and greater equality for the Shia majority. They were met with rubber bullets and teargas; three days later security forces switched to live ammunition. Within a few weeks some 2,000 Sunni soldiers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had arrived in Bahrain, at the invitation of the Khalifas, to impose martial law – and, in doing so, poured oil on the fire of sectarian tensions.
...Yet western leaders and journalists continue to callously avert their eyes. Those who itched to drop bombs on Libya have little to say about Bahrain – Misrata, yes; Manama, no. Bahrain is "complicated", say our leaders. It isn't. A king has turned his security forces on his own subjects. And the reason the US hasn't come out against him is as cynical as it is simple: Sunni-led Bahrain is a strategic ally of the US, a counterweight to Shia-led Iran, and home to the US navy's fifth fleet. Syria isn't. Neither is Libya.
Since September 2001 Bahrain has been a key Middle East collaborator in America's so-called war on terror; in 2002 it was designated a major non-Nato ally by George Bush. And, on a visit to Manama last December – two months before the Khalifas began killing their people – Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, called Bahrain a "model partner" and said she was "very impressed by the progress that Bahrain is making on all fronts – economically, politically, socially".
Since February, the failure of western governments to do anything more than go through the motions of "condemning" the violence by Bahrain's rulers has been a dismal vindication for those of us who have long maintained that in the clash between our interests and our values, the former almost always trump the latter. Nonetheless, the sheer brazenness with which our elected leaders have continued to cosy up to, and apologise for, Bahrain's tyrants, is startling. Referring to the Obama administration's decision to emphasise "stability over majority rule", a US official was quoted in March as saying: "Everybody realised that Bahrain was just too important to fail."
Meanwhile, our queen invited King Hamad to the royal wedding in April, and our prime minister, David Cameron, welcomed Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa to London in May, greeting him on the doorstep of No 10 with a firm handshake and bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase "blood on our hands".
America as we know is not a supporter for instance of workers rights or the rights of the people if it cuts into profit margins of American corporations.
Rapacious anti-democratic capitalism is of course one of America's most precious ideals which it wants to spread to all corners of the world. When the world finally looks like one big WalMart where workers have no rights then and only then will America and its worshipers;finally be satisfied.
America should pay heed to what is happening in Bahrain and elsewhere where oppressive regimes are backed by the US . This is part of why they hate America because of its double-dealing,its hypocrisy its interference and manipulation of foreign nations to do as America and its corporations pleases.
Within its own borders America has become more and more anti-democracy and tends to downplay any talk about human rights.
We also see this at play in other parts of its foreign relations as in its (America) cold indifference to the suffering of the people of Gaza by the Israeli Apartheid Regime.
America and the Obama administration we should recall was against the reform movements in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan , Uzbekistan and Egypt.
In Egypt it now looks as if the anti-reform provisional government will not go ahead with real substantive reforms but merely a changing of the guard which would then be supported by the US and the West and Israel.
Bahrainis defy Saudi-backed crackdown at Tehran Times, July 12, 2011
Bahraini protesters have taken to the streets across the country once again, defying the Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful demonstrations and calling for the downfall of the regime.
Bahrain's Saudi-backed security forces have clashed with anti-government protesters that demand an end to the autocratic rule of Al Khalifa regime across the tiny Persian Gulf sheikdom, Press TV sources report.
Regime forces struggled to disperse protesters who staged rallies in several areas late Sunday. The nightly clampdown came after groups of young men and women chanted slogans against the Al Khalifa family rule, calling for its ouster.
Similarly, security forces fired tear gas and live rounds on Saturday to disperse protesters in the northeastern village of Nuwaidrat, who rejected the call for talks with the government.
Anti-regime demonstrators also staged rallies in the villages of Dair and Musalla, renewing their calls for the regime to give up power.
Saudi-backed security forces have been suppressing Bahraini protesters on a daily basis since Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed military forces to the tiny country to assist the Bahraini government in its brutal crackdown on popular protests.
While Bahraini citizens are arrested for taking part in protests or simply airing their views; the Bahraini authorities sell their Orwellian propaganda to the West and appear to get away with it.
Meanwhile most of those incarcerated in Bahrian are intimidated, threatened, tortured , denied their basic rights . If they go to trial the trials are "Show Trials" or Kangaroo courts similar to those military trials the Americans have for detainees and terrorists suspects where the evidence is merely hearsay or confessions which are a product of torture.
The West ignores Bahrain's poor human rights record and only worry about it as a good environment for business.
Human rights 'pillar of Bahrain's policies' Gulf Daily News , July 11, 2011
HIS Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa yesterday said civil liberties and freedom of expression are guaranteed in the Constitution and National Action Charter, reiterating the government's resolve to promote and protect them.
This came as he received at Gudaibiya Palace a delegation from EU Parliament and the British House of Lords.
"Respect of human rights is a key pillar of the government's policies," he said.
He also affirmed the government's effort to protect rights of all citizens and expatriates and ensure decent living conditions for them.
HRH the Premier briefed the delegation on the recent events and how the government addressed them as part of its keenness to maintain security and stability and ensure people live in harmony.
He highlighted transparency and probity which marked the parliamentary and municipal elections, pointing out active participation of citizens in the decision-making process.
"This is evidence that popular will is the source of power in the kingdom. Bahrain's fledgling democracy is getting stronger and more mature," he said, referring to His Majesty King Hamad's initiative to launch the National Dialogue.
He also spoke about the Royal Independent Fact-finding Mission and said, "His Majesty's initiatives prove Bahrain's transparency in the international community and its civilised ways.
"Bahrain is open to the world," he said, stressing its keenness to be an active player regionally and internationally by co-operating with all countries to benefit from global expertise in all fields.
And so the business community ignores the protests in Bahrain since these protests and the brutal crackdown on protesters and government critics has had no or little affect on the operations of businesses in Bahrain.
This Wall Street mentality is typical of the US and the West. Anything which harms businesses is bad .
This typical American attitude we have seen played out in not just countries in the Middle East but also in Asia and in Latin America.
The Americans hate Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Honduran President elect Zelaya or someone like Salvador Allende of Chile (1973) because they are not pro-rapacious capitalism and who believe in the UnAmerican ideal of social and economic justice for all citizens not just the rich and powerful and the well connected.
The American view is that no nation's government has any right to regulate in anyway shape or form American corporations.
Remember in America a Corporation now is considered equivalent to a private citizen and therefore has the same rights as any other American citizen.
As an American citizen American corporations are only answerable to American laws and not the laws of other nations nor the rulings and agreements of the United Nations or any other International organization.
American citizens whether private individuals or working on behalf of the US government are allowed to rape, murder and plunder other nations and their peoples with complete impunity.
"No sign of predicted business exodus from Bahrain " by Kevin Brass , The National.ae ,Jul 12, 2011
A predicted exodus of financial institutions from Bahrain has not materialised, according to a new study.
After months of speculation and rumours, there have been no confirmed reports of any companies in the sector moving large operations after the political turmoil that gripped the country in the spring, reports CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), a property specialist.
"I suspect that the projected growth of business will be stunted, but as for businesses leaving, it hasn't happened," said Mike Williams, the senior director of Middle East research and consultancy at CBRE.
and so it goes,
GORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment