Politics

Various Israeli media, such as Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz (citing Reuters as the source) report that the Israeli government has honored several Egyptian Jews who were involved in spying and sabotage in Egypt in the 1950s. This incident is known as the Lavon Affair, and extensive material on the incident can be found in Israel and Terror in Egypt.

For some time now, I meant to write on how an empire brainwashes itscitizens with semi-convincing rhetoric, praising what evil is beingdone and portraying it as the ultimate good. Mass media, jingoism, herdmentality and conformance all converge to convince the masses.Two essays I came across recently highlight a difference between the good oldpropaganda in the Eastern Bloc, which is mostly not convincing, and themasses know it is not true, learn to ignore it, and just go on withtheir lives. In a free Western style democracy, this cannot happen.Hence the propaganda has to be convincing.

In this post September 11 world we live in, terrorism is such an ill-defined, emotionally charged issue, that rarely gets discussed rationally anymore.In the early weeks after Septermber 11, the question of "Why they hate us" was systematically raised by U.S. media. As the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, this discourse all but died out, and has not been revisited since. At least not in the USA.There is a glimpse of hope elsewhere though. The International Summit of Democracy, Terrorism and Security is underway in Spain.

In Gulliver's Travels, the satirist Jonathan Swift provides religious, political and philosophical critique on various aspects of British Society in his time.

In Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll always made thinly masked critiques of the Victorian age he was living in. Once such criticism is the Knave's trial and the Queen of Hearts attitude: sham trials with guilt being pre-determined.The Knave of Hearts is accused of allegedly stealing the Queen of Hearts' tarts, where in fact it was Alice who did so. The Queen of Hearts had made up her mind and wanted the Knave to be beheaded.A trial is set, but it is only a sham trial.

Now that the 2004 Presidential Elections are over and Bush has won, there are a lot of interesting facts, rumors, analysis and the like.

A few weeks ago, a Palestinian violinist trying to cross a West Bank checkpoint was forced to play his violin. The soldier ordered him to "play something sad".You can see the details at the BBC in Israel army forces violin recital and the Haaretz in Israeli soldiers force Palestinian to play violin at West Bank checkpoint.

While some Americans are contemplating moving to Canada, a few US soldiers have already fled north to Canada, and are seeking political asylum here. During the Vietnam war, many US citizens fled to Canada in order to avoid the forced draft there. These are called "draft dodgers" in Canada, and have integrated well. You cannot even tell they were American.Several cases have been reported in the Canadian media during summer of 2003.

The following is a brief background on how the neo-con policies were a significant driver behind attacking IraqFor the longest of time, I wanted to write something about the influence neocons have in America's Foreign Policy, but never got around to it. The other day, I stumbled across a post on Slashdot that nicely summarizes the topic, by someone called egrinake, who seems to be from Norway.

Here are some notes and thoughts on the results of the US Presidential Elections of 2004, where George W. Bush won a second term.