437개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 19th day:
While the number of killed Palestinians in Gaza is increasing almost hourly, the war, since yesterday, is slowly disappearing from the list of "the top stories" in the int'l media (at least in the "West").
The death toll on the Palestinian side now stands at nearly 1,000, among them at least 300 children and 100 women, according to the Palestinian health ministry. More than 4,500 have been injured, of whom around a half are women and children (hundreds are in very serious conditions).
Since the start of its offensive on December 27, IAF has bombed more than 2,000 targets in Gaza, an Israeli security source said.
Israel's fierce assault on Gaza has destroyed at least $1.4 billion worth of buildings, roads, pipes, power lines and other infrastructure in already impoverished territory, Palestinian surveyors estimate, y.net reported today.
More and more Gazans were fleeing their homes to seek shelter wherever they could. At least 29,000 are now holed up in UN schools operating as emergency shelters - more than 2,000 of them fled on last Sunday alone, in Gaza City and Khan Yunis, to the south. Thousands more are staying with relatives or friends (*).
Meanwhile a growing number of political and military analysts are asking about the real objectives of Israel's war in Gaza.
According to Netanyahu, "there are two options [in Gaza]. The eradication of the Hamas regime - and there will be no escaping this in the long run - and putting an end to its armament."
But more and more of analysts/observer/journalists, even in Israel, have no real idea about an answer!
As "proof" just check out following:
☞ A dangerous victory
☞ State officials: Barak encouraging Hamas
☞ Israel must wait as Hamas seeks way out of Gaza mess
☞ Israel defense officials back immediate Gaza truce
Also very interesting is following approach (of an analysys):
☞ Can Israel Survive Its Assault on Gaza? (Time, 01.08)
* Some of the latest developments:
Israeli troops are fighting on the outskirts of Gaza City today after another night of heavy bombing and shelling.
There was heavy fighting in northern Gaza and around the edges of Gaza City, from where Israeli troops have mounted raids to within one kilometer of the city centre. Early today, the old Gaza city hall, a former court building, was destroyed in an air strike which damaged many shops in the nearby market.
Israel's military said it hit 60 sites overnight, including the police headquarters in Gaza City that had been hit on the first day of the operation, as well as rocket launching sites, weapons stores and 35 smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt. Six Israeli soldiers were injured.
Three rockets fired from Lebanon landed in northern Israel in the second such attack since Israeli forces launched their Gaza offensive...
Related reports:
☞ Gaza death toll nears 1,000 (al-Jazeera, 1.14)
☞ 'They've killed us. Me, Amal and... They've gone to heaven' (Guardian, 1.14)
☞ Israeli troops reveal ruthless tactics against Hamas (The Times, 1.14)
Well, it seems that the reality in Nepal is "swimming against the stream" (Mao Zedong)!
While the former so-called "communist" parties in the West, especially in Europe, lost their power (mainly completely!!), in Nepal a "hardcore" communist organization - the CPN (M) - almost won a guerilla war and later won the democratic parliamentarian election.
While the so-called "communist" parties in the West were/are (at the best!!) perishing or splitting (*) in various small (often simply psycho)sects, the Nepalese communists are trying "alternative ways"...
The diversity of the Nepalese political parties is well-known! Particularly on the left/progressive side! Especially the variety of the communist organisations is very "sensational": CPN (Maoist), CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninist), CPN (Unity Centre-Masal), CPN (United Marxist), CPN (Marxist-Leninist), CPN (Masal), CPN (United), CPN (Unified), Nepal Workers Peasants Party etc...
But y'day the Nepalese communists reduced (sucessfully) their "diversity"!
Today's NepalNews reported following:
CPN (M) to become Unified CPN (M)
The CPN (Maoist) and CPN-Unity Centre have decided to unify the two parties on Monday.
The joint meeting of the central committees of the two parties decided to name the new party as Unified CPN (Maoist).
The unified party has also decided to drop Prachandapath as its guiding principle.
A public function is to be organized in Khula Manch, Tuesday, to formally announce the unification.
They have decided to form a national general convention preparation committee, which will have maximum 175 members.
Earlier, the CPN (M) had decided to enlarge the 35-member central committee to 106 members. Over two dozen more members are likely to be nominated by Maoists.
Central leaders of the two parties were busy in discussion throughout the day on Monday, trying to settle issues before the formal announcement of unification.
CPN-Maoist, Masal unite; PM Dahal renews revolt rhetoric
The formal announcement of unification between CPN (Maoist) and Unity Centre (Masal) was made in Kathmandu amid a mass gathering Tuesday.
Party workers took out rallies from different parts of the capital prior to the mass gathering at Khula Manch, which was attended by senior leaders from the Maoist party and the now-dissolved Unity Centre (Masal).
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Prime Minister and chairman of CPN (Maoist), heads the united party which has been named as Unified CPN (Maoist). The party will have a 175-member central committee that includes 38 members from Unity Centre (Masal).
Addressing the mass meeting, party chairman Dahal warned of 'people's revolt' if the current Maoist-led government is forced to quit.
"This government is not a repetition of past ones. If it is overthrown our party will spearhead a people's revolt from the next day and capture power," he thundered, "Nothing in the world will stop us." To try to topple the government, he said, is to push the country into disarray.
Dahal also indirectly warned the coalition partners, saying "We are in the same boat. Other parties will sink along with the boat if they make holes in it." "We are revolutionaries and we will manage to sail through."
The Maoist strongman, however, admitted his cabinet has not been able to meet the aspirations of the people.
"People want the government to deliver, but it has not been able to deliver fully. We communists are in majority, but we are plagued by lopsided attitude [towards of each other]."
Related article:
☞ PM warns against bid to topple govt (The Himalayan Times, 1.13)
* Latest example: Rifondazione Comunista, Italy's strongest party of the "radical left", is nearing its division - and consequently its end as political party with any influence..
Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 14th day (for updates, see below):
1. Latest news and related articles
..by Al-Jazeera:
☞ Israel resumes deadly Gaza attacks
..by Guardian (UK):
☞ Medical teams find 'unbelievable' horror amid rubble
☞ Israel and the west will pay a price for Gaza's bloodbath
☞ Israel criticised over 'shocking incidents'
..by y.net (IL):
☞ Olmert: Gaza op goals yet to be obtained
☞ UN: IDF shelled evacuated civilians
..by Haaretz (IL):
☞ Israel's three alternatives for the future of the Gaza war
☞ IDF sources: Conditions not yet optimal for Gaza exit
2. Hamas vs. the Palestinians in Gaza
PIC (Hamas' propaganda site) wrote y'day in an "editorial": "For years, we have been warning that Israel is psychologically and morally capable of carrying out a holocaust or a genocide against the Palestinian people."
My question: Why the Palestinian "ordinary" citizens got no shelters? While the leadership of Hamas and the other "resistance" organisations (IJ, PRC..) can hide out since almost two weeks in save places (a well-fortified tunnel system digged across the entire Gaza Strip)..
Last Thursday the IAF killed in an attack Nizar Rayyan, one of Hamas' "key leaders".. Only few hours later Hamas has already threatened to avenge Rayyan's death. Because Hamas described the assassination as a "the crossing of red lines"
My question: Why wasn't Dec. 27, the first night of the IAF attacks (in the following few hours almost 200 Palestinians were killed..), "the crossing of the red lines"
Well, I think the answer is (or should be) clear...
3. Tomorrow's (Sat., 1.10) "Palestine Solidarity Demonstration":
4. Updates
4.1. UN Resolution 1860
The resolution adopted Thursday night by the United Nations Security Council calls to cease fire immediately..
Here are the nine clauses of Resolution 1860 calling for a ceasefire in Gaza:
1. The Security Council stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
2. The Security Council calls for the unimpeded provision and distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment.
3. The Security Council welcomes the initiatives aimed at creating and opening humanitarian corridors and other mechanisms for the sustained delivery of humanitarian aid.
4. The Security Council calls on member states to support international efforts to alleviate the humanitarian and economic situation in Gaza, including through urgently needed additional contributions to UNWRA and through the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee.
5. The Security Council condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorist.
6. The Security Council calls upon member states to intensify efforts to provide arrangements and guarantees in Gaza in order to sustain a durable ceasefire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition and to ensure the sustained reopening of crossing points on the basis of the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access between the Palestinian Authority; and in this regard, welcomes the Egyptian initative, and other regional and international efforts that are underway.
7. The Security Council encourages tangible steps towards intra-Palestinian reconciliation including in support of mediation efforts of Egypt and the League of Arab States as expressed in the 26 November 2008 resolution, and consistent with Security Council Resolution 1850 (2008) and other relevant resolutions.
8. The Security Council calls for renewed and urgent efforts by the parties and the international community to achieve a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace with secure and recognized borders, as envisaged in Security Council Resolution 1850 (2008), and recalls also the important of the Arab Peace Initiative.
9. The Security Council welcomes the Quartet's consideration, in consultation with the parties, of an international meeting in Moscow in 2009.
4.2. Israel's first reaction..
..by Foreign Minister T. Livni: "Israel has acted, is acting, and will continue to act only according to its calculations, in the interest of the security of its citizens and its right to self defense."
..by Vice Premier Minister Eli Yishai: "The world has turned into Haniyeh and Hamas' lobbyist. It's no matter for concern if this resolution stays on paper, our interest is all that matters."
.. by PM E. Olmert: "Israel has never allowed any outside source to determine its right to defend its citizens. The IDF will continue to act to defend the citizens of Israel and carry out the missions laid before it in the operation."
☞ UNSC’s resolution meaningless: Military push needed (y.net)
4.3. Hamas' first reaction..
..by Musa Abu Marzouq, the deputy head of its political bureau: "We have three conditions for any peace initiative coming from any state.
First, the aggression of the Israelis should stop. All of the gates should be opened, including the gate of Rafah between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Finally, Israel has to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
But we are not saying we will stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip to Israel (!!) - we are only talking about stopping the aggression from the Israelis against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip."
Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 12th day:
More than 660 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel's attack on Gaza, with nearly 3,000 wounded, according to int'l media reports.
Only few days ago (Jan. 01) E. Olmert 'promised': "We will treat the Palestinian civilians with kid gloves.." And yesterday we saw the reality: The Israeli army bombed an UNRWA school in Jabalya and at least 40 civilians were killed, seeking there shelter from IDF/IAF bombardment. PS: By doing so, they fully followed the instructions of the IDF, which for a week now has been urging Palestinian citizens – via leaflets, text messages, and public announcements – to evacuate their homes located in trouble-prone areas.
Following a selection of latest news and related articles:
..by Guardian (UK)
☞ Gaza's day of carnage - 40 dead as Israelis bomb two UN schools
☞ Shell-shocked children who are drawn into the cult of the martyr
☞ Gaza after a Hamas rout will be an even greater threat to Israel
☞ How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe
☞ Interactive guide: Israeli attacks on Gaza
..by Al-Jazeera
☞ School hit piles pressure on Israel
..by Haaretz (IL)
☞ Israel postpones vote on expanding Gaza ground op as truce efforts grow
..by Asia Times (HK)
☞ Suicide by Israel
☞ Al-Qaeda sniffs opportunity in Gaza
Meanwhile (according to AP) Moussa Abou Marzouk, the deputy head of Hamas's political bureau today said his group is studying peace initiatives to end the violence in Gaza Strip but rejects any permanent truce with Israel.
Already on Monday night the "prominent spriritual leader" (according to Palestinian sources) Waeel al-Zarad 'promised' in Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas' TV in Gaza) that "the Muslim blood vengeance against the Jews will only end with the complete extermination of the Jews"...
On November 11th 2008, French "Anti-Terrorism Police" arrested around twenty people in connection with five incidents in the preceding weeks in which electric train lines were shut down, causing delays.
Nine of these were subsequently accused of “criminal association for the purposes of terrorist activity” (*), four of them were released on bail and five remain in custody. Because many of the accused were arrested in Tarnac, a small village in the Corrèze region of central France, they have become know in the press as the “Tarnac 9".
They have been associated with certain political texts, including the journal Tiqqun and the bestselling book The Coming Insurrection, texts which the press has dubbed ”anarcho-autonomous” following the Ministry of "Justice" which has been conducting a crusade against this supposed movement for some time.
The Guardian (UK) published last Saturday (01.03) a feature on the arrests of the Tarnac 9. It's sister paper The Observer followed this up with a pretty awful story titled 'France braced for 'rebirth of violent left'. Interesting in the story is the supposed thesis that the State reckons (or pretends to reckon) that a new wave of militant struggles is about to sweep Europe.
Well, here's the feature, published in last Saturday's Guardian:
Rural idyll or terrorist hub? The village that
police say is a threat to the state
High on a bleak mountain plateau in central France, the tiny village of Tarnac is fiercely proud of its grocer's shop. A smiling lady with a perm stands behind the old-fashioned till amid shelves stocked with everything from fly-swats and fairy lights to socks and soya milk. Elderly villagers boast that thanks to the shop, they don't have to leave their cottages to travel miles for bread in this vast, depopulated rural wilderness of central France known as "the desert". Posters advertise tea dances and cinema club screenings of Billy the Kid.
But the French government claims that Tarnac and its small shop are the headquarters of a dangerous cell of anarchist terrorists plotting to overthrow the state. Images of balaclava-clad police swooping to arrest suspects in Tarnac were compared by bewildered villagers to a strange, rural action movie. The government hinted that locals were too gormless to have noticed the terrorist activity in their midst. But after weeks of controversy, supporters are rising up to defend the young people of the village.
Known as the Tarnac Nine, four men and five women aged 22 to 34 are being investigated over far-left terrorism following dawn raids by police in November that targeted several addresses, including a farm with a few goats, chickens and vegetables. Those arrested include a Swiss sitcom actor, a distinguished clarinettist, a student nurse and Benjamin Rosoux, an Edinburgh University graduate who runs the grocer's shop and its adjoining bar-restaurant.
The alleged ringleader, Julien Coupat, 34, is still being held in prison despite a judge's ruling that he be released. A former business and sociology student from an affluent Parisian suburb, Coupat moved to Tarnac in search of a non-consumerist lifestyle, saying he wanted to live frugally. The poor village of 350 people is home to a growing number of young people who have escaped the city for a simple life and sense of community. Together, the newcomers ran the shop, a mobile delivery service, the restaurant, a cinema club and an informal library.
Police said Coupat and his archaeologist girlfriend had been under surveillance for months. The arrests followed six incidents of vandalism on France's high-speed railway lines, which caused delays for thousands of travellers but no casualties. Coupat and his girlfriend had allegedly been seen by police near a train line that was later vandalised.
The couple had come to the attention of the FBI months earlier when they took part in a protest outside an army recruitment centre in New York. They and acquaintances are said to have often travelled to protests and demonstrations such as a recent protest at a European summit on immigration at Vichy.
French police say Coupat was the author of an anonymous tract against capitalism and modern society, The Coming Insurrection. The Paris prosecutor said the group was intent on armed struggle and used the farm in Tarnac as a "meeting point and place of indoctrination" for "violent action". But France's Human Rights League, opposition politicians and intellectuals criticised the arrests as an attack on civil liberties and an abuse of France's draconian anti-terrorist laws. Defence lawyers say there is no evidence for terrorist charges.
Inspired by the indignant villagers of Tarnac, support committees for the Tarnac Nine have sprung up across France and in the US, Spain and Greece. In Moscow, supporters demonstrated outside the French embassy. A national protest is planned in Paris this month. The interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, has been challenged in parliament over the case but insists there are "concrete elements" to support terrorism charges.
In the bar adjoining Tarnac's grocery store, as farmers tucked into their lunch, Jérôme, 28, who moved from the city seeking an alternative lifestyle in Tarnac, said he knew those who had been arrested and had stayed at their farm. "The portrayal of this place has been absurd. The farm is a very collective place and the village has a convivial atmosphere, doors are always open. They say we lived a secretive existence hidden away in the woods. That's not true - the farm is beside the road. They talk of a 'group' when there is no group. They say there was a ringleader ... but there is no boss here, that's an absurdity. It's against our whole thinking."
He said the government was trying to create an idea of an "enemy within", branding all forms of leftwing demonstrations and activism as terrorism.
The government said those arrested did not have mobile phones in order to avoid being detected. Their supporters said there was poor network coverage in the area and they shunned mobile phones as consumerist.
Tarnac sits on the plateau of Millevaches in the northern corner of Corrèze, in rural Limousin, famous for its cattle, poverty and emigration. The surrounding countryside was used by the resistance during the second world war and the village, which for decades had a communist mayor, has long been leftwing.
Across the hill from the farm where Coupat was arrested, Thierry Letellier, the independent mayor of the neighbouring village, tended his sheep farm. He said: "They were my neighbours, helping me on the farm and selling my meat at the shop. They were kind, intelligent and spoke several languages. They were politicised, on the left and clearly anti-capitalist like lots of people here, but they were people active in community life who wanted to change society at a local level first. To say that they were the descendants of Baader-Meinhof or the Red Brigades with no proof, I'm completely against that."
He dismissed the interior minister's claims that it was easy for "terrorists" to move into a remote village where people were not very bright and wouldn't notice. "It's true that members of Eta [the Basque terrorist group] have been found in the area, but they were hidden, they had no support, no one knew them. These people were a key part of our community."
Coupat's well-connected doctor father said the government was using the case to "intimidate youth".
One man, drinking in Tarnac's bar, said: "Did they do something silly or not? It's on the news every night but we're no closer to the truth. I feel we're being manipulated."
Chopping wood outside his house, André Filippin, 65, said: "It's ridiculous. I see them at the shop every day of the year, I help them with their drains, they help me. They are people who came to Corrèze to change their lives, to help people. We don't view them as terrorists here."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/03/france-terrorism-tarnac-anarchists
For more information and updates:
☞ Support Committee for the Tarnac 9
Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 9th day:
Since nearly 24 hours the "long-awaited" ("eagerly-awaited" by Hamas and other Palestinian "resistance" organisations) IDF ground operation, the "2nd Phase" of its war against Hamas, takes place inside the Gaza Strip.
Yesterday in the late afternoon (local time in Gaza) Israel dramatically escalated its war with Hamas, sending thousands of troops and tanks pouring over Gaza's borders in a move designed to reoccupy parts of the northern Gaza Strip. Amid reports of fierce clashes inside Gaza, columns of military vehicles and what the army said was "a sizeable number of troops" moved across the border at several points, backed by an intense air and artillery bombardment.
The Israeli gov't ordered today the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists, suggesting the operation will be expanded further. The army said it expected to be in Gaza "for many long days".
Gaza City, last night: attacked by IDF artillery..
Hamas leader Ismail Radwan "promised" y'day afternoon: "Gaza will be a graveyard for you (the IDF) and the aggression will not be a picnic. You have no choice but to stop the aggression and end the siege unconditionally. You will not enjoy security unless the Palestinian people enjoy it first."
Just 24 hours later y.net 'reported': "IDF chief of staff: Not much left from Hamas government in Gaza. Military Intelligence chief: They understand violating the lull was a strategic mistake."
For more latest news:
☞ Israel pushes deeper into Gaza (al-Jazeera, 01.04)
☞ Some 500 killed since start of Gaza op (y.net, 01.04)
☞ Our fighters inflicted heavy casualties in the ranks of IOF troops (PIC, 01.04)
☞ Shin Beth: Hamas has eased its demands.. (Haaretz, 01.04)
Related articles:
☞ Analysis: Who will come out on top? (Guardian, 01.03)
☞ Palestinian in Gaza chronicles life under bombardment (Guardian, 01.03)
☞ 'Even the Left Was in Favor of Striking Hamas' (Interview, Der Spiegel, 01.02)
Special reports:
☞ War On Gaza (al-Jazeera)
☞ Warfare in Gaza (Haaretz)
Related link:
☞ PFLP (Palestinian former M/L organisation)
50 years after the Cuban Revolution:
"We Already Live in Capitalism" (*)
Yesterday the Caribbean Island marked the 50th anniversary of its revolution, but...
As hard times bite, Cubans show
little appetite for celebration
The revolutionary leader said history would judge him, but the daily struggle to survive is testing even his most loyal supporters
Carmen Gonce remembers the triumph of Cuba's revolution as the happiest day of her life. Fidel Castro and his guerrillas swept down from the Sierra Maestra and delivered the island from a corrupt and brutal dictatorship. People danced in the streets and welcomed the "bearded ones" into their homes. It was 1 January 1959 and a time for hope. "We were nearly all Fidelistas," she said.
Half a century later, the girl of 15 is a pensioner of 64 who watches sunsets over the Caribbean from a cracked chair on the balcony of her Havana home a few blocks from the Karl Marx theatre. Much has happened since that day, yet it seems close enough to touch. "It feels just like last year."
Gonce still supports the revolution's principles and is grateful for a recent heart bypass operation. "A top surgeon - and I didn't pay a cent!" But celebrating the anniversary is not an option. The former author and book editor is nearly destitute. She has no money for decent food, cooking oil or soap, let alone treats. So she will stay at home, follow the anniversary commemorations on TV and reflect on a process that has simultaneously inspired and impoverished her. "The ideals are good but the reality of daily life ... " Her voice trails off.
The ambivalence reflects the complex legacy of a revolution which invested in health and education, crushed dissent and provoked admiration and revulsion. Cuba reaches today's milestone with the echo of the prediction Fidel Castro made from the dock as a young revolutionary in 1953: "Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me." Well, did it?
Crisis
There is no disputing the revolution's durability. It survived the Bay of Pigs invasion, the missile crisis and the Soviet Union's collapse. Castro outlasted 10 US presidents and dodged countless CIA assassination attempts. Absolution or not, history will certainly remember him.
The anniversary coincides with a period of flux. Castro, 82, resigned as president last year because of an intestinal illness, but his recent partial recovery has revived his influence. His brother and successor, Raúl, 77, signalled modest reforms, but they have stalled. Barack Obama has promised to ease draconian US restrictions and shake up a policy pickled in vinegar since JFK.
"It feels that the end of the story has not been written. Nobody knows what is going to happen and that is unsettling," said Daniel Erikson, a Cuba expert at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based thinktank.
One safe bet, however, is that there will be no mass outpouring of jubilation to mark the anniversary, for a simple reason: living standards are dire. "Our situation is so precarious nobody wants to celebrate," said Gabriel Calaforra, 75, a former ambassador and high-ranking official. "There is almost total indifference. People are waiting for change."
The authorities have booked popular musicians for a free concert at the Anti-Imperialista Tribune on the Malecón, Havana's seafront, so there will be dancing. But joy, like so much else on the island, will be scarce. The struggle for decent food and basic goods makes people obsess about vegetables and conserving everything from soap to toilet roll. Few are in party mood.
Material hardship was eroding trust in the system, said Erikson. "A lot of people think the revolution has important accomplishments but pervasive scarcity puts economic questions at the front of their minds."
The government blames the long-standing US embargo. Unquestionably it has wrought havoc, but most analysts say communist central planning, stifling bureaucracy and lack of economic freedom have proved even more ruinous.
The state controls about 90% of the economy, obliging almost everyone to work for it, but pays an average monthly wage of about £12. A ration of rice, beans and other staples, and supposedly free public services, keeps people alive but does not avert grinding poverty.
To buy goods in the few decently stocked shops Cubans must change near worthless pesos into convertible pesos, a dual currency worth 24 times more that was designed for tourists.
"After I pay my rent I have $2 left for the month," said Miguel, 32, a whip-thin hospital doctor. As a favour, a European friend recently married Miguel to help him obtain an exit visa. "I want to get out," he said.
Poverty reeks from the decaying, overcrowded buildings of central Havana. Though from a distance they are picturesque, up close you see the grime and smell the plumbing. Likewise, the 1950s Chevrolets and Fords, surreal mechanical marvels, lose their charm if you are a sardine-wedged passenger or pedestrian choking on the fumes.
Cuba became dependent on tourism after the end of Soviet subsidies in 1991 triggered savage austerity and a need for foreign currency. With a casual tip dwarfing state wages, scientists, teachers and other professionals quit their jobs to become waiters, chambermaids and taxi drivers. "Our most brilliant minds - serving coffee," lamented Alvaro, a university lecturer turned tour guide.
Sidelines
Everyone has some type of sideline - selling knick-knacks, baking cakes, pilfering state resources. "A population of hustlers and mini-capitalists, that's how our communism survives," said Luis, 42, an academic who rears pigs in his garden.
The government knows its legitimacy and longevity hinge on raising living standards. After succeeding Fidel last year Raúl announced minor reforms: more privately-run farms and taxis, greater wage flexibility and permission to stay in hotels and buy computers, DVD players and mobile phones.
Some things have improved. Hundreds of Chinese-made buses have eased transport shortages and subsidised Venezuelan oil has helped to banish power blackouts. But reforms have stalled, disappointing Cubans and puzzling observers.
"It's in limbo. Raúl unleashed expectations but apart from agriculture very little is happening," said a senior diplomat.
The official explanation is that three summer hurricanes devastated crops and infrastructure, wrecking 500,000 homes and causing $10bn damage. The global economic downturn and a dive in nickel prices, a key export, have also hit state coffers, forcing Cuba to reschedule debt payments. The crippling US embargo compounds the woes.
There is suspicion that Fidel has been doing his bit to slow reforms since his health reportedly improved. His regular newspaper articles are sharper. "There's a sense, oh-oh, Fidel's back," said the diplomat. Raúl-inspired calls for bold self-criticism and a "revolution within the revolution" have ebbed.
In the absence of material improvements the revolution's legitimacy rests largely on healthcare and education, success stories that have given Cuba first-world rates of infant mortality, life expectancy, literacy and university graduations.
Gonce's bypass operation shows the system at its best. Many hospitals and polyclinics have been overhauled and modernised. But the system is creaking. Under a barter deal for Venezuelan oil more than 20,000 Cuban doctors are working overseas and foreign patients are leapfrogging queues. The result is delayed treatment and overworked staff, said Miguel, the doctor who hopes to emigrate.
Education is also under strain because so many teachers, fed up with low salaries and an ideology-imbued curriculum, have quit. Adolescents straight out of secondary school have been recruited to teach classes with the aid of video cassettes.
"Pupils are not encouraged to think freely, to develop their own ideas and curiosity," said Enrique, 25, a disillusioned teacher. "The other problem is purely economic. University students don't consider teaching to be something serious." Enrique has resigned from the Communist Youth organisation.
Loyal
Older Cubans who remember the corrupt tyranny of Fulgencio Batista, the US-backed dictator toppled 50 years ago, tend to be more loyal. "The thing is working," said Marilyn, a proud member of a Committee for the Defence of the Revolution, a neighbourhood network. "We have health, we have education."
Such fidelity is being tested by increasing inequality. Che Guevara's egalitarian dream long ago gave way to division between the dirt poor and those who have access to foreign currency through tourism jobs, remittances and government contacts.
Raúl's cautious reforms have underlined that split by giving the privileged minority more opportunities to consume. You see them snapping up Sony wide-screen televisions, Paco Rabanne perfume and Adidas trainers in shopping centres like La Puntilla, out of bounds to most but with a poster of Fidel's revolutionary exhortations at the entrance. Most Cubans are black or brown-skinned but most of the shoppers here are white - just as top government echelons are white.
"Equality was and still is supposed to be one of the pillars of the revolution but now there are people with loads of money," said Eduardo, 56, a historian. Too broke to treat his wife on their wedding anniversary, the former Young Communist was not minded to celebrate the revolution's.
Despite the sour mood there is little public protest or even graffiti. It would change nothing and you could get fined or jailed, so why bother, is a common refrain. Opposition parties are banned and by some counts there are more than 200 political prisoners. The government says they are US-paid mercenaries.
A rare demonstration in Havana by the "ladies in white", an organisation of relatives of jailed dissidents, was instructive. Clutching flowers and leaflets about human rights, about 30 chanted "liberty" from the steps of the Capitolio before filing through busy streets, tailed by plainclothes policemen. Not one passerby cheered the solemn procession. Lacking funds, media and grassroots organisation, the opposition is isolated and largely unknown. One European diplomat was blunt: "Dissidents are irrelevant."
For US policymakers that is reason to despair. They have long counted on the so-called "biological solution": when Fidel Castro died, his ramshackle regime would collapse. That has turned out to be wishful thinking. The commandante has seamlessly transferred power to Raúl and his inner circle.
Not only will the revolution outlast him, Fidel can die feeling vindicated. Not long ago he was an international pariah, but a new generation of leftist regional leaders has feted him as a symbol of Latin American pride and nationalism. And prescience: his critiques of imperialism and capitalism resonate in the light of the Iraq war and global economic crisis.
"Cuba is returning to where it always should have been," Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president, said at a summit last month. "We are complete." It is a view shared by centrist leaders such as Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Argentina's Cristina Kirchner. Largely for economic reasons, China and Russia, and to some extent the EU, have also courted Havana.
Final chapter
After half a century, Fidel Castro's experiment has significant accomplishments and glaring failures. Historians will struggle to untangle the political and social meaning. Diplomats will try to anticipate the next and possibly final chapter. It will be left to the 11 million people who live on the island to decide if the "bearded one" who swept down from the Sierra Maestra all those years ago is to be absolved.
For Luis Poey, 69, a guard at the entrance of the Association of Veterans of the Cuban Revolution, the answer was obvious. "In this country one lives proud all the time. We fought giants and that made us a giant." He jabbed his thick cigar. "We are still fighting."
Source: Guardian, UK (01.01)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/01/fidel-castro-raul-castro
* Yoani Sanchez, Cuba's "most famous" blogger (☞ Generación Y), according to the German daily Berliner Zeitung (08.12.29), explained the situation 50 years after the revolution...
Well, of course (!!), Cuba's "special friends" also noticed the anniversary (^^):
☞ Outside forces cannot end Cuba's revolution (Miami Herald, 01.01)
Related:
☞ "Wir leben schon im Kapitalismus" (Berliner Zeitung, 08.12.29)
Sorry! But the New Year begins as it ended: with bad and bloody news (especially for the Palestinans)!
Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 6th day.
Yesterday afternoon the German magazine Spiegel.Online had it "top" headline: "Israel's gound offensive is very unlikely" ("The majority of military analysts predicts.."). Only 12 hours later the article disappeared (so much for the "reputable" bourgeois journalism!!^^). Instead: today in the morning y.net (just as one example) headlined:
IDF: WE'RE READY FOR THE BATTLE!
But: No Problem! Olmert just today "promised": "We will treat the Palestinian civilians with kid gloves and provide humanitarian aid. We did not declare war on Gaza's residents, but we will deal with Hamas with an iron fist..", according to today's Yedioth Ahronoth (*).
Israeli and Palestinian reactions:
"That's it, its done, we are going in - in our own way, with our own surprises, fighting dirty, not like before. We reached the end of your bullshit. All is on the line, its no more crap. Gazans, join us to kill hamas/jihad or die with them. Hamas, don't drink the water underground,we are poisoning it. Ishamel-wait for us. haniyeh, you are on the list, say goodbye to your family. Zophar, we will not forget you."
Alexi, Israel (01.01.09)
"I was looking at TV tonight and I noticed the kind of races that form the israeli population (ethiopians, polish, russians, americans, moroccans...)
This army of mixed nationalities will be crushed by indigenous population because they have their roots in that land while you are a lost population without roots. just look at an ethiopian (who has clearly of ethiopian genes) what right can he claim on palestine??" (**)
Ibrahim, Gaza (01.01.09)
"The victory is near, insha'Allah, and it's nearer as you think!", I. Haniyeh (Hamas' leader) said y'day in Al-Aqsa TV.
Hamas also writes TMs for Israeli citizens:
"Rockets on all cities, shelters not protect, Qassam rocket, Hamas."
* Don't Believe The Hype! (Public Enemy)
** In my opinion: pure fascist argumentation/propaganda! Isn't it?
Related articles:
☞ We must reshuffle the deck (Yedioth Ahronoth, 01.01)
PS:
Y.net's main site today in morning, "adorned" with following picture:
Wow! War (massacres, mass destruction etc.)
can be sooo beautiful!!
Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 4th day:
While the..
"Ground War is on Horizon"
..according to the current "top story" by CNN - "An Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip appears to be just a matter of time" (Der Spiegel) - it seems as if the Palestinian "resistance" (Hamas, IJ, PRC..) await eagerly the coming (bloody) battles in the streets of Gaza City, Khan Younis, Beit Hanoun...
Well, just "enjoy" following messages from Gaza:
"We have many surprises for Israel! We are just waiting for the ground attack to teach them an unforgettable lesson."
"We Will Fight Till the Last breath"
"Im from Gaza near the border, and i have SMS for Barak and Olmert.... stupids if you think that we will fall or cry becuse of casulties, till the last child of our generations we will resiste you. we ready for being all in the heaven with Muhamad PBUH .... come on and we will give IDF our special dragon Kiss."
"Kill our children, kill our women, kill us all, but our march to freedom will not be stopped. Your occupation will be defated, no matter what yu do. We are waiting for your sissy army here, come one, come all."
If there's a ground invasion, Abu Obeida (spokesman for Hamas' military wing) promised worse: "If you enter Gaza,our children will collect your flesh which will be spread out through the streets.", according to Ma'ariv.
Related articles:
☞ Israeli Troops Ready for Ground Invasion (Der Spiegel)
☞ Hamas is hoping for an IDF ground operation (Haaretz)
☞ PRC spokesman urges IDF troops to 'fight like men' (Yedioth Ahronoth)
PS:
Still al-Jazeera TV has the best, most informative reports about the war in Gaza. You can find its live stream here:
http://www.livestation.com/channels
Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 3rd day:
"Shock Treatment for Hamas"
Death, Tears and Rage in Gaza
First of all: The German (bourgeois) Welt.Online reported today in the late morning that Hamas political "leader" Khaled Mashaal has said that he is ready to sign a ceasefire agreement for Gaza that would involve Israel ending its attacks and its blockade of the territory (*).
But Israel/the IDF will be - very likely - not really impressed by his offer: Almost short while later the Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Brigadier-General Dan Harel said: "We are just at the beginning of the battle, this will not be hasty. The worst is not behind us – it is still ahead of us, and we should be prepared for this." and continued: "After this operation there will not be one Hamas building left standing in Gaza, and we plan to change the rules of the game."
At the same time Israel's war ("defence") minister E. Barak "promised": "We'll fight this war until the bitter end!"
Already yesterday GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant said that in attacking Hamas' regime in the Gaza Strip, the IDF will try to "send Gaza decades into the past".. while achieving "the maximum number of enemy casualties.."
Meanwhile, since the early afternoon, IAF reduced the number of airstrikes in Gaza while IDF ground forces complete preparations for possible incursion.
Following a small selection of reports of the recent developments:
By al-Jazeera:
☞ Israel in 'all-out war' with Hamas
☞ Hamas calls for third intifada
For more, detailed and daily informations please check out:
☞ Haaretz (IL)
☞ Yedioth Ahronoth (IL)
☞ PIC (Hamas propaganda..)
* A lot of "interesting" comments related to Mashaal's "offer" you can read here!
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