Of wars and criminals

In July 2023, Reuters reported that The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the Russian president Vladimir Putin’s arrest. (The ICC is distinct from the International Court of Justice, an organ of the United Nations that hears disputes between states.)

This is because he is held responsible for the actions of his army and ‘Russian forces in Ukraine are responsible for rapes, widespread" torture and killings.’

The article further clarified that ICC can bring a prosecution against political leaders for "waging aggressive war" in the event of an unjustified invasion, or conflict not undertaken in self-defense.’

I was happy to learn from a PBS report on December 23rd, that “South Africa launched a case at the United Nations’ top court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and asking the court to order Israel to halt its attacks — the first such challenge made at the court over the current war.”

South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice alleges that “acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character” as they are committed with the intent “to destroy Palestinians in Gaza” as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group.”

This excellent submission put forward by the South Africans needs widespread support, for when you see the reports on the nightly news showing the results of the days activities in both Ukraine and Gaza, there is little difference between Putin and Netanyahu’s government.

In fact, in terms of cruelty, the Israelis seem to be way ahead.

I am certainly no defender of Putin or the Russians, but in their effort to steal the Ukrainian’s land, the Russians seem to be targeting mostly soldiers, whereas in Gaza, the government and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) clearly aim to eliminate as many women and children as possible!

In a chilling report on December 31, 2023, The Daily Ground reported that the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, told the Israeli army radio that ‘Israel must control territory in Gaza and significantly reduce the number of Palestinians living there. "If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not two million, the whole discourse about the day after will be different," he said.

If that news report is correct, since the population of Gaza is around two million, this means the likes of Smotrich have no reservations or qualms about wiping out up to 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza!

If that isn’t genocidal, nothing is.

It has been very clear for some time that the Israeli government is also not simply setting out to kill as many of this generation of Palestinians as possible but also as much of the future generations as well.

So, they are promising to carry on this campaign for much longer.

This campaign cannot only cause Israel to become an international pariah, but also ensure that the country cannot ever exist in peace, for by their own actions, they are simply forcing the future generations in the territories that it oppresses, to become terrorists!

You know, some powerful people like to label all criticism of the Israeli actions in Gaza as anti-Semitic. This is absolute nonsense however, as social media is replete with videos ofJews from all over the world, including descendants of victims of Hitler’s genocide in Germany, opposing the Netanyahu government’s acts of genocide against the Palestinians and the apartheid regime that passes for democracy in Israel!

Even Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper has been reporting that ‘Protests calling to oust PM Netanyahu are taking place night across Israel, including a Tel Aviv solidarity rally with the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.’

No one is more responsible for what is taking place in Gaza today, than that Israeli prime minister Netanyahu and his blood-thirsty cabinet which cannot see beyond totally eliminating the Palestinian population.

So far, their army has killed almost 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza and under the watchful eye of the IDF, settlers in the West Bank have been murdering Palestinian farmers and stealing their land.

That is what the government of Israel wants as they are determined that the Palestinians should never have their own state but simply remain in eternal bondage or flee their land.

The proof of this is reported in the Times of Israel on December 31, 2023, which quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying during a press conference at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv that 'he was “proud” he prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state and took credit for “putting the brakes” on the Oslo peace process.' 

2024 will see no improvement in the Middle East and many have been wondering if the Falasha’s living in Israel are not in danger of elimination too.

This concern is based on a declaration made even before November 8^th by Judith Varnai-Shorer. This influential politician is a powerful former Israeli Consul for General the Southern United States, a former ambassador to both Hungary and Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as a former minister of congressional affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. Her most recent post was desk director at the Center for Policy Research.

In a video circulating on You Tube, she is heard warning other powerhouse Israelis at a secret meeting in the US that major problem Israel has is with ‘the young generation of the black community.’

That smells like trouble for the young Ethiopian Jews. The older ones migrated to Israel and while their population is listed at 85,000, some 20,000 were born there according to Israeli statics.

Research for yourself the terrible discrimination the Falasha’s are currently subjected to in Israel!

The European Jews who control Israel, clearly don’t want any people there who are not lily white and by giving them full support, the Americans are being drawn into that mire.

 

 

 

 

Kick the dog!

 

I have noted some pathetic attempts in various media to validate Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. This unprovoked war has led to the murders of thousands of civilians in Ukraine including women and children plus serious instability worldwide.

Apart from creeping international inflation caused by the disruption and increases in oil prices, the war has also had serious repercussions in poor, drought ridden countries, where starvation is now rampant. They had previously been able to buy basic foods such as wheat and corn from fertile Ukraine, but the disruptions caused by the war, have driven up the prices of these products where they are available.

If it wasn’t so serious, it would be hilarious to see and listen to the excuses by the apologists whose reasoning seems steeped in nothing but the ‘kick the dog’ philosophy!

For those who are not familiar, the kick the dog reaction is most often used by cowards. For when one cannot confront the real source of their displeasure or hurt, they find the weakest thing to abuse and take out their anger.

Often this is a harmless dog lying around at home!

This philosophy shines clearly throughout the writings and reasoning of most who have come out in support of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The latest attempt at justification was written by one Maxim Artemyev, a so-called journalist at the state-run media empire in Russia called RT. His piece published on 9th September, is entitled “The West took advantage of Russian weakness in the 1990s and is unable to understand the trauma it unleashed.”

It begins “A series of articles published in the Washington Post in August about the events leading up to Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, and its first stage of operation, raise a significant question. “How realistically and objectively do people in the West perceive the situation?”

In putting forward his justification for the illegal invasion of Ukraine, Artemyev spouts a series of injuries/indignities he claims Russia suffered since 1985-1991, when Mikhail Gorbachev pulled the USSR out of the arms race and ended the Cold War.

In the long diatribe which wreaks with self-pity (as a Russian), he itemizes the various indignities, financial and reputational losses Russia has suffered since 1985. While doing so, he pointed an accusing finger at many in the west and NATO but reading it through carefully, I could find nowhere that the Ukrainians were the villains.

Clearly by his own admission, Ukraine is just the dog!

And he knows that too, since he places the blame squarely where it should fall, writing; “The collapse of historical Russia was the result of Gorbachev’s remarkably weak leadership and Yeltsin’s personal ambition, as the latter tried to consolidate power even if only over a smaller state.”

So, Mr. Artemyev, if the Russian empire disintegrated as a result of poor leadership in Russia, how does that justify the murder of thousands next door?

Maybe this article was intended to be a salve for those Russian readers who wondered why their brothers and sisters in Ukraine were being murdered by Russian soldiers and not for an international audience.

What is clear though is that Russia had expected the dog to run away whimpering, but instead, it is biting back!

So, the carnage and war crimes continue.

Trump with or without brains?

Some Republicans seem confident that they can get their beloved Donald Trump to be the President of the United States in 2024, without having to put up with Trump himself and his unattractive baggage!

How is this going to be achieved?

Pick Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida to be their candidate.

They are so impressed with this politician that already he is being dubbed Trump with brains!

Further, a survey done by The University of New Hampshire, found that support for DeSantis has more than doubled since last October to 39% while 37% of likely voters said they would vote for Trump and only 9% said they would vote for former vice president Mike Pence.

Having a Trump with brains would be a dream for Republicans but it would be hazardous to the health of entire world. For if Trump was not so rash and unpleasant, he would have gotten a second term and can you imagine how catastrophic that would have been?

To begin with, there would be no Ukraine today as he would have fractured NATO and have helped Putin in any way he could.

Autocracy would become the order of the day in the USA too. For as the January 6^th enquiry is showing, Trump would have destroyed every institution set up to protect democracy.

Now what about DeSantis?

When he was running for governor, he demonstrated what a Trump cultist he was by even airing a series of tv ads showing him teaching his baby daughter to read, using Trump’s Art of the Deal!

He is also an autocrat who will whittle away at the liberties that Americans have become accustomed to.

Already, he has welcomed the return of young women to the dark ages, where they are no longer in control of their own bodies. He has even started to personally censor text books being used in the schools. (don’t say ‘gay ‘ bill which even censors the teaching of anything to do with slavery!)

Billboad protesting DeSantis' censorship

As to freedom of expression, Disney discovered to their chagrin, that if they wish to do business in Florida, they cannot disagree with anything DeSantis says!

The economy too will be in turmoil for what the republicans loved about Trump and hail as his economic prowess, is the policies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

A win for Trump with brains or dumb Trump, will be the same misery for the majority of the American people.

Ukraine is different!

"When elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled." African proverb

There has never been a truer word, and lest we are inclined to forget, the recent events in Ukraine have brought this wise proverb center page.

Although many of us never heard of Ukraine until February 2022, that country cannot be categorized as an 'elephant,' in world affairs. But, this war is really being fought by the USA, the European Union (EU) and Russia.... real big league!

Anyway, as the African proverb said, its the grass or the less wealthy countries that are suffering the most.

For while the price of energy is skyrocketing because of the war, wealthy countries are better able to deal with such spikes. And since energy costs affect most things, crippling inflation will be on the rise almost everywhere.

Ukraine has also been a very fertile agricultural country, producing significant amounts of sunflower oil, barley, corn and other basic foods.

Just think of our and other poor countries dependence on corn meal as a basic staple! Either it will soon be priced out of our reach or there will be a chronic shortage soon. When corn and other basics are no longer produced by in large quantities by Ukraine, starvation and famine will surely escalate in poor dependent countries.

Let me state up front though that I support the USA and EU getting involved in the Ukraine situation, as the concept of a larger well-armed country invading a neighbor cannot be tolerated in civilized society.

It should never have happened in Iraq in 2003 when the powerful USA, supported by Poland, Great Britain invaded that little country on a false pretext.

It should never have happened in Panama either when the powerful USA invaded to take out their leader Manuel Noreiga who had stopped colluding with the CIA.  Some records say some 15,000 Panamanian were killed in that exercise.

So yes, modern history is replete with stories of big bullies invading less powerful countries on spurious grounds. 

What we are seeing today though is the level of racism existing in many influential media houses in the western world. 

For never before have innocent war victims been so deservedly humanized as have the Ukrainians,  from where the suffering of ordinary people been brought into our homes so graphically and regularly.

Each time I see a report out of Ukraine, I have to ask myself what makes the pain and suffering of the Ukrainian people at the hands of the blood thirsty Putin worse than the pain and suffering of Afghan, Iraqi children in the past at the hands of the USA? 

But they are still just a small sample of the innocent women and children who have been forced to flee their homes daily, often with just the clothes on their backs, in the face of bloodthirsty dictators worldwide..

According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, (UNCHR), there are today over twenty million refugees worldwide. Watching western television however, one would never get that impression, as no other race of innocent victims is being humanized anywhere. 

Only the Ukrainians need world sympathy and assistance one could easily conclude!

And are there really more Russian war criminals around than in other countries where innocent civilians are being wiped out ad infinitum?

Quite frankly, the only difference I am seeing every night is that its white Europeans who are suffering in Ukraine whereas in other conflicts it is 'people from shithole countries or as some may say "children of a lesser god."

As to the matter of international justice and punishing war crimes, Russia is one of the 144 countries that are members of the International Court of Justice, (an organ of the United Nations that deals with those matters) but neither the USA nor China are. 

Vladimir Putin, a master puppeteer

According to Generation Z podcaster, Shadrach Williams, Vladimir Putin must be an evil genius, as he has broken many world records and done what had been otherwise considered impossible.

These include;
a) Employing his political genius to manipulate himself from the position of spy chief to president of Russia.
b) Skillfully using a hand-picked president while he was prime minister, so he could return to become the powerful, long lasting, unbeatable president of his well-armed country.
 c) Allegedly being the richest person in the world.
d) Manipulating the president of the powerful USA, so now he carries out his wishes.
e) Having not only the President of the USA but also leading members of the Republican party, debunking the findings of 18 US Intelligence agencies while parroting the Russian intelligence service’s propaganda.

According to Williams, his impression that Putin is pulling Trump’s strings, was solidified after listening to the facts provided at the recent impeachment hearings.

This led him to pose the following questions to his fellow discussants.:  

Question; Who was Trump helping when he held up the delivery of arms needed by Ukraine to assist them in their war with Russia? Answer; Putin.

Question: By taking the word of the Russian intelligence agency over the unanimous findings of the 18 US intelligence agencies that it was Ukraine who hacked the Democratic party’s emails and not Russia, who is Trump helping? Answer: Putin.
Question: When elected members of Congress and the Senate follow Trump’s lead and parrot Russia’s intelligence service propaganda over their own security experts, who are they helping? Answer; Putin.

These troubling facts were discussed in the latest podcast of “Politics across generations” available at https://anchor.fm/politicsacrossgenerations.

The podcasts which cover a series of issues raised as we approach the 2020 elections, provides Political education from the perspective of the Baby Boomers and the Millennial generation coming together to understand each other’s viewpoints and discuss the candidates, as well as their ideas.

The moderator, Shadrach Williams, a 24-year-old Afro-American who is a graduate of Florida International University (FIU) and author of the self-help book “A month to re-create reality,” (link ; https://www.amazon.com/Month-Re-Create-Reality-Change-Mentality-ebook/dp/B07V78Y8ZT/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=a+month+to+change+your+reality+by+shadrach+williams&qid=1573251512&sr=8-1; ). Other discussants are fellow Generation Z FIU psychology major, Shadaen Stevens, and yours truly, the baby boomer .

During the discussions, the possibility was discussed that if Trump loses the elections in 2020, violence in the streets could become a  real possibility.

This is based on the premise that since the Russians seemed to have been successful in assisting the Trump campaign to win in 2016, what would prevent them from sending soldiers (undercover) to try and keep him in power in 2020?

This is not just a conspiracy theory, as Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, did tell Congress that he feared violence would break out in the streets, if Trump lost. This plus other evidence to boost this theory was reproduced in the book entitled “DECISION 2020: SOCIALISM, RACISM OR HAPPINESS? ( link; https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ40KG), which I published in September this year.

Shadrach also expressed his frustration with many of his fellow Generation Z minority peers, who are so distracted by music and entertainment that they are not paying enough attention to politics and how their decisions today can affect them in life. For example, many do not understand that it’s not only the presidency that will be decided in 2020 but much more. This includes many state officials who will determine the type of judges and justice that will exist for years to come.

He added however, that many young people consider the electoral college, undemocratic, as it does not reflect the will of the people. To them that therefore, means, their votes do not count.

Shadrach Williams can be contacted at; williams.shadrach@yahoo.com

American/ Russian interefernce in elections

Even if the Americans have themselves had a record of sometimes “interfering” in elections in other countries, they have every right to be upset that Russia interfered in their presidential elections, as all the intelligence agencies have agreed happened. Interestingly, president Trump has time and time again, chosen to believe Putin's word, although he is ex and probably still KGB, while dismissing the evidence provided by 17 of his own intelligence agencies, but that's another issue.

Anyway, the difference between what the Russians did to the USA in their democratic elections and normal "interference,"  is that the US and Russia are currently the two most powerful superpowers in the world and if one can gain unchallenged influence throughout the world because it has its surrogate in power as the head of the other superpower, it would be terrible for the rest of us. 

Especially if the one that ends up with total power is Russia!

For Russia is by no means a liberal democracy and thus their holding sway over what happens in smaller and weaker states would be tragic for people in the free world, who could see the freedoms to which they had become accustomed, being gradually diminished.

I have been there and speak from personal experience on the front lines.

This was during the cold war era in my small island of Jamaica which lies only 90 miles away from Cuba. We were forced to go through four years of turmoil because the democratically elected government of the day decided it preferred the Cuban system of government and the socialist philosophy to the Westminster system of government under which it had gained power. And the Cubans were only too happy to assist them in every way possible to  take away our freedoms. For after all, Jamaica being the largest and most influential island in the English speaking Caribbean, would give them great leverage in their quest to have the then USSR dominate the entire region.

So we saw our island being flooded by thousands of Cubans supposedly coming in to assist in agricultural development and the health service. They however were under the command of a general named Ulysses Estrada who was allegedly the head of their intelligence agency, the DGI. Also assisting the Cubans but covertly, was the Russian KGB and I know that as a fact as I did have an encounter with one.

On the other side was the American CIA which had allegedly heeded the opposition party’s cry for help, but they apparently operated very covertly, for although I was often on the frontlines, I never encountered a CIA agent on the ground.

However, I say without apology THANKS TO THE AMERICAN CIA FOR ASSISTING US, FOR IF THEY HADN’T, JAMAICA TODAY WOULD PROBABLY BE LIKE VENEZUELA where food shortages, hyper-inflation, no press freedom, government sponsored aggression and the silencing of the opposition are the order of the day.

Worse yet, we could be like Cuba itself. I have visited that country four times since 1980, because of its physical beauty and the fact that I have close family there. Their life is one of absolute misery and the younger ones who were born after the revolution, do not even know that there is an alternative world in which people can criticize their government, read and write what they want or even better, get a passport and travel to any place they wish, as long as they have the money. Sad.

I therefore thank the Americans for “interfering” and assisting us in defeating the Cuban DGI and Russian KGB in the elections that followed our four year period of turmoil…1976-1980.

For reducing the world to a position where one of the two super powers dominates totally because it succeeded in putting its surrogate in power, is extremely dangerous for the entire world. For what Lord Acton said in the 1800’s is still relevant today. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”