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I wanted to wait for a few days before jumping to conclusions about the Annapolis Summit (they seem to have finally stuck to a name). Now that I have had some time to sniff around (i.e. sit in front of the TV flipping between the news networks), I have reached two conclusions and some predictions about the future of this process.

First, I find it amusing that this-and-that pundit from such-and-such think tank hail the attendance of various Arab leaders as a success. This is not a success. The puppet tyrants of the Arab world live to serve their master: Bush (and Syria is no exception). When the White House whistles, the would-be lapdogs come running. This has been true since at least the end of the Cold War… and when it isn’t, the United States launches a war. (more…)

Arguably, the strong aid pessimism that persisted during the 1980s and 1990s had faded a little at the turn of this century. In 2000, at the Millennium Summit at the UN Headquarters (the only UN gathering in which all heads of state were present) all governments agreed upon the Millennium Development Goals as a grand strategy to markedly reduce extreme, deadly poverty. Its first goal was the reduction of the percentage of people living in extreme poverty by half until the year 2015. The other goals set targets for school enrollment, universal primary education, maternal health and a “global partnership for development”. The foundational thinking for this approach is to be found in what has been termed the “unofficial” book behind the goals, articulating the views of their architect – The End of Poverty by Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Professor Sachs is a fervent advocate of the view that a drastic increase in development aid could achieve these goals, and the public largely bought these arguments.

It seemed like the days in which perceptions that aid would largely become embezzled, spent by gullible do-gooders or used by big powers to further their geo-political and economic interests dominated debates about development were numbered – a shift in perceptions that is has in recent years been incessantly challenged by New York University Professor William Easterly. His book The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) left its imprint on the academic and public debate on development aid. (more…)

I was so eager to read the memoirs of this great Marxist historian that I could not wait to read it. Finished it on the plane last night. What a big disappointment. You can be a great historian and write a lousy memoirs. You don’t even learn much about who he is from reading it. You learn some about the times but I would rather read his The Age of Extremes (a history of the 20th century). Now that is a fine piece of work.

I think that the problems with this memoirs is this: to write a good memoirs 1) you need to think that you are somewhat interesting; 2) you need to be a good story teller; 3) you need to be comfortable talking about yourself. That does not apply here. (more…)

To Greeks, the island of Crete is thought to be a scenic holiday location - albeit isolated by a particularly wide expanse of the Mediterranean sea. It is an island with a great history and a unique polymorphic landscape. As a girl, I remember hearing stories of the oddity of Crete’s inhabitants and of the amazing and unusual things that occurred there.

One summer, I visited the sleepy town of Ierapetra with my family. As I can recall, the Cretans were a kind and hospitable people with a talent for cooking – even by Greek standards. It’s common knowledge in Greece that Cretans are old-fashioned charming folks, keeping traditions as they go. Being very young (I believe I was only 5 when I visited Crete), I had wondered with some interest why so many of the Cretans dressed entirely in black. It was as if the entire island was perpetually trapped in the throes of some unspeakable tragedy. A childish thought to be sure, but I came to realize that Crete was indeed more tragic than one might have imagined. (more…)

Electronic Intifada just published an article I wrote here - the article was previously posted on harmonicminor.com as Disengagement Two Years On and was taken from research I conducted with my good friend Jonas Ecke.

I was also interested to notice that as soon as my name was published on EI, the University College of Cork Ireland created a profile for me on their Palestine: Information with Provenance database. The database seems to include authorship information for various people writing about Palestine - blogs are excluded.

The Gaza Strip: Disengagement Two Years On
Electonic Intifada. November 24, 2007.

Two years ago, Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. We all remember the intense media campaign shamelessly portraying the settlers as dispossessed victims of a bold move for peace. Among others, Harvard economist Sara Roy argued that Israel’s version of disengagement would bring disaster to an already desperate Gaza. Today, we are witnessing emergence of an unparalleled economic catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and with it, the evaporation of the last remaining hopes for a Palestinian state. (more…)

Writing about the serious flaws in American justice a la the “war on terror” is not especially easy. Where does one begin? From Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib to the secret CIA detention facilities scattered across Eastern Europe - there is surely an abundance of outraging cases of Orwellian malfeasance.

One case in particular has been on my mind recently… In Iraq, an Associated Press (AP) photographer name Bilal Hussein has been in U.S. custody for the last 19 months. During this time, no charges were issued and only now has the United States even raised the issue of his possible prosecution for alleged links to terrorism. The evidence for these links, of course, is secret… and even the possible charges have yet to be clearly defined. (more…)

Over 500,000 people have now fled Mogadishu and its seems safe to assume that the Bush doctrine is alive and well in Somalia.

With the Islamofascists overthrown and the bloodshed intensifying, America has added yet another success to its long list of accomplishments in spreading freedom and democracy. Somalis may yet throw candy to the U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops, but there’s just one hitch: the Islamist forces overthrown last year by the U.S.-backed Ethiopian army are regaining their strength and are likely to reassert their power if Ethiopia’s own domestic rebellion intensifies. (more…)

First it was called a “conference”, then a “summit” and the latest preferred terminology is “meeting”. But whatever you call it, the Annapolis Conference/Summit/Meeting planned for November 27 is not being taken seriously. Just over a week away and there have been no invitations sent out, no joint declaration – not even a consensus on which countries will actually participate.

The usual game is being played out, however.

[Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud] Olmert is expected to announce at the meeting in Annapolis that Israel will freeze settlement construction and dismantle the outposts. <<< more

(more…)

Speaking ill of my own nation always makes my feel like a heretic. Nationalism is now what religion used to be and any criticism of one’s own people is likely to be treated as treason by one’s compatriots – albeit as insanity by all others. To paraphrase the nationalist theorist Ernest Gellner: we now worship ourselves as we formerly worshiped God.

When Poland entered European Union more than three years ago, I was overly enthusiastic. Deep in my heart I was hoping that the demagoguery of the Eurosceptics would become at least partly true and Poland would lose some of its ultra-nationalist fervor. I hoped that the EU’s twelve stars will cast some light on my country and finally place us on a glorious path of enlightenment. I believed that our xenophobia, homophobia and Antisemitism would evaporate along with our “almost fanatical devotion to the Pope”, as Michael Palin of Monty Python once put it. (more…)

The Drones is one of those bands I got into accidentally - and possibly one of the only live acts that impressed me more than the group I went to see. I had become somewhat taken with The Devastations, (another Australian band) through Myspace, waited and looked for their CD for ages before it actually came out domestically. So I went to see them at The Casbah, here in San Diego, playing with The Drones. Prior to the show, I briefly checked them out online and they seemed promising. As it turned out, The Drones were headlining for this particular stretch of the tour and played a longer set than they had. The Devastations were good, but The Drones were clearly a better live act if not due to anything else than the energy that is more possible because there are fewer ballad-type songs. The singer was extremely passionate, and wildly feral. FERAL. (more…)

The inanity of authoritarian movements can never be underestimated. The horrific shooting by Hamas of unarmed demonstrators is only the latest example of the Islamist group’s unwillingness or inability to control its forces in the Gaza Strip.

Squandering the general support they enjoyed here by forcibly seizing control of the Strip last June, many Gazans now regard Hamas as an unhinged group of fanatics more concerned with rooting out political opposition than in combating the Israeli occupation. (more…)

In a recent interview with IDG NOW magazine, Ian Pearson, British Telecom’s so-called “futurologist”, claimed that within 10 years scientists will be able to create computers that are only intelligent, but also conscious like us. The grim visions of terminator-like wars for energy and resources, combined with the heat of the Fijian night, kept me awake ’till the early morning hours. I only fell asleep, when it struck me that machines may as well help us solve the problems of global warming, hunger and poverty. (more…)

As I write this, thousands of pro-Fatah demonstrators are pouring through the streets of Gaza City, collecting at al-Anzar park near Islamic University to commemorate the third anniversary of Yassir Arafat’s death. Already, Hamas thugs have killed one and injured dozens of demonstrators. Because these events are literally occurring just blocks away from my flat, I’ll probably remain at my downtown office until things calm down. This is quite bad. All I can hear is shouting, sirens and heavy gunfire…

UPDATE: Seven have now been killed.

Tags: Violence, Gaza, Palestine, Clashes, Security, Fatah, Hamas, Gunfire, Al-Anzar, Islamic University, Yassir Arafat, Gaza City

Two years ago, Israel completed a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. We all remember the intense media campaign shamelessly portraying the settlers as dispossessed victims of a bold move for peace. Among others, Harvard economist Sara Roy argued that Israel’s version of disengagement would bring disaster to an already desperate Gaza. Today, we are witnessing the emergence of an unparalleled economic catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and with it, the evaporation of the last remaining hopes for a Palestinian state. (more…)

George W. Bush seems terribly confused these days (and not just because he can’t decide whether the U.S. supports the Kurds in Iraq, opposes the Kurds in Turkey, encourages Kurdish terrorism in Iran or does all three simultaneously). With Pervez Musharraf declaring emergency rule in Pakistan, the Bush Doctrine has come face to face with a genuine challenge: should the United States toss in its shameful support for Pakistan’s authoritarian Falstaff or… well, not?

The latter, it seems, has become the favored option in Washington. (more…)