THE SOCIAL BLOG

Beautiful though she was, she was no Saint.

She an instance of human political tendency to immortalize those who’ve been assasinated.

—————-
Now playing: Fatboy Slim - Praise You
via FoxyTunes

The Book I so want to read now; Jack Goldsmith’s The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration.

In October 2003, President Bush appointed Goldsmith, a self-described conservative who proudly proclaims that he is not a civil libertarian, head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, thus making him chief adviser to the president about the legality of presidential actions. Ten months later, Goldsmith resigned because he could not endorse the unlawful policies the administration had implemented in the war on terror.

Shortly after taking office, Goldsmith reviewed a series of highly confidential opinions written by his predecessors in the Bush administration that defended the legality of “some of the most sensitive counterterrorism operations in the government.” To Goldsmith’s shock and dismay, he found that some of these opinions “were deeply flawed: sloppily reasoned, overbroad, and incautious in asserting extraordinary constitutional authorities on behalf of the President.” What was going on?

Continue reading this review…..

Another review from International Herald Tribune reads,

As Goldsmith recounts in his chilling new book, “The Terror Presidency,” he and his Justice Department colleagues (in consultation with lawyers from the State Department, the Defense Department, the CIA and the National Security Council) reached a consensus in 2003 that the Fourth Geneva Convention (which governs the duties of an occupying power and the treatment of civilians) affords protection to all Iraqis, including those who are terrorists. When he delivered this decision to the White House, he recalls, Addington exploded: ” ‘The president has already decided that terrorists do not receive Geneva Convention protections,’ he barked. ‘You cannot question his decision.’ “

There has been a lot of criticism of the way the Bush Adminisration is running and managing its War on Terror program. I would like to read this book to learn more about it. The reviews make it seem very interesting.

Israeli authorities have declared Gaza a ‘hostile area’. For those who read the papers they would know that the reason is the activities of the Hamas in that area. Israel has totally cut of fuel supplies to gaza and people in the area are not allowed to leave even if they go for medical reasons. Condolezza Rice on the other hand promises to keep supplying aid to the Palestinians there. As a result of no fuel, there is not power in 80% of the city and people are dying in the hospitals because of the impossibility of performance of surgeries and medical attention. The action to allegedly tackle the Hamas, is one that affects the common gazan population. I am myself touched to read and get to know the ground story of such action. Dr. Mona El Farra writes;

Gaza today
I am extremely worried about the power cut off . more than 50%of Gaza electricity is paralysed.at AlAwda hospital , we have enough of fuel to run our alternative electrical generators for one week . all hospital are threatened to stop of its surgical operations and diffrent medical services .if the situation will continue .Many essential medications are lacking on the hospital shelves, I expect the poverty level to increase to unprecedented level. Ordinary Palestinian people pay the price of the occupation , their democratic choice and bewilderment of their leaders.

I promise u that i shall work hard with my team to help people . with your support and solidarity we can do a lot.

Mona elfarra

I recommend all of my readers to read her blog. It’s touching. Every time I read it my heart goes out to the palestinians and support for their struggle.

Elie Wiesel, a jew himself commented in 1986 that to be indifferent then is a sin. The greatest concern that one can have is not of security but that of humanity. While the above is preached to the whole world, Israel certainly doesnt seem to be following that. When can we realise the man can live together in harmony and peace rather than fighting over land occupied by themselves.

The problem I have with Israel is that in the 1950’s they asked for the sympathy of the world to what Hitler did to them and now seem to be doing the same to the Palestinians. It is a struggle against suppression that the Palestinians pursue and what we can best do is to support people like Dr Mona Elfarra and others in their endeavour.

There is darkness everywhere. My efforts of looking for a ray of light have turned futile. All through out the week, there have been instances of grave injustice all over the world. Electing the head of a state has turned into a political game; Brown v. Board of Education has been partially overruled; One of the world’s greatest manipulators is now to fight for a human rights cause. What more could the world want? This is, to be succumbed by darkness.

This is for the first time I am noticing that electing a president has become more political an affair than any other process. Rather than electing non- political heads, we choose to put in those in favour of a particular party. This influx of ideas had started with Indira Gandhi putting up Giani Jail Singh as a Presidential candidate in the 1970’s and 80’s. How then can one come to terms with such incidents? This takes me back to the Constituent Assembly Debates and what Shashi Tharoor wrote in the Times of India. According to Shashi, the main reason why England chose not to remove the monarch/ royal head was that they feared that the position would become an example of political stigmata. So there was, the true West Minister model of governance.

Contrasting that with India, as smart as we Indians are (that’s sarcasm); we chose to have a West Minister model of Government. In theory the president was suppose to be apolitical. But alas! We don’t see that happening. Our ‘esteemed’ politicians decided to have a republic and elect a president. I think Radhakrishnan was not a victim of such policy. Neither was Rajendra Prasad. The situation however doesn’t remain the same after on. Today the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) makes allegations against a nominee (Pratibha Patil) and puts her credibility to stake. Something disgraceful for someone who could be President of this country. It then was wise for President Kalam not to fall into this trap.

The Bottomline, there is politics in everything. Not to forget that my college Student Bar Council elections are around the corner and political whips are in full swing here too.

So while all this happens in India, racial segregation has got a new meaning in the USA. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) has been partially overruled. That’s true! A few days ago, a nine judge bench of the US Supreme Court stated that certain segregation policies in the schools of Louisiana and another state were perfectly legal. This was a 5:4 ration judgment that has now overturned every aspect of a democratic ideal. Only an idiot cannot estimate the consequences of such a ruling. A New York Times editorial reported that the US Supreme Court has gone to become a Conservative institution and Earl Warren’s ideals no longer remain intact. At one hand where we expect the society to progress towards rationality (Russell) , we seem to be going backwards. Racially targeted recruiting strategies are now constitutionally legal in the United States.

There is also a lot of speculation about Tony Blair getting involved in the Middle east political process. Again NYT said,

“If Blair uses his manipulative skills then a result may be achieved else we must be prepared for a faux pass.”

So darkness prevails. Earlier I wrote that I have lost hope in the system. I now would like to retract from it as I am reminded of Albert Camu. In “Letters to a German Friend” he wrote,

“There are means that cannot be excused. And I should like to be able to love my vcountry and still love justice. I don’t want just any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born out of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive.”

That’€™s my stand on the system now.

Readings;  

 The University of Chicago on the ‘School District Cases’. 

Yesterday, while observing World Environment Day, the Government announced the setting up of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. The high-level advisory body has been constituted to “coordinate National action plans for assessment, adaptation and mitigation of climate change”. The move comes at a crucial juncture after the Inter-Government Panel on Climate Change had submitted its Fourth Assessment Report in April, 2007; the G8 summit to be held later this month is also expected to deal extensively on the issue.

“Climate Change”, a term used in the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC), pre-supposes an involvement of the human element in contributing to, say, a specific instance like global warming. India, with its significant population count is no doubt a contributor, albeit lesser in degree, to greenhouse gas emissions, industrial and automobile fuel-pollutants and consequently, to global warming. Furthermore, it is extremely critical that the ideal of sustainable development be attained as the problem of rapidly vanishing forest belts (along with it, natural resources of water, minerals etc) in India cannot be ignored anymore.Ours being an agrarian economy, climate change is of all the more concern in that ever-rising temperatures and depleting irrigation sources can be fatal to the agro-sector.

The PM’s Council, therefore, has a significant role in shaping the future course of activities to tackle the problem of climate change. GreenhouseGases Online has annexed a very informative slideshow on Climate Change Mitigation and the Kyoto Protocol on their website. The Presentation may be viewed here:
http://www.ghgonline.org/sacpress2003/mitigatekyoto/sld001.htm