The latest campaign by the West and so-called "progressive" activists to try to reduce and eventually rid the world of nuclear weapons is nothing more than a naive and unrealistic goal.
Global nuclear disarmament also seems as a means to shift the balance of power to the West (particularly NATO) and it's allies. This is true both militarily and economically.
It is not nuclear weapons that pose such a serious threat to world peace and stability and also kill so many living beings as well as destroying property. When was the last time nuclear weapons killed so many people or were used in a full scale war?
Compare that to the number of times regular weapons from simple machine guns to sophisticated missiles that do damage and take lives on a regular basis. Nuclear weapons productions are not yet (and probably never will be) an industry as regular conventional weapons. Many countries such as America rely on wars to sustain their economies part of which is heavily dependent on arms exports.
A sudden standstill in wars and conflicts worldwide would do severe damage to the economies of mainly NATO countries as well as others.
It's also ridiculous how America and many other Western countries supply sophisticated weapons to two opposing countries. Why are F-16s supplied to both Greece and Turkey who have had military and territorial conflicts going back decades?
Because it's an industry. It's understandable that weapons are needed by some countries in order to protect themselves from hostile, larger, more aggressive states. But to make an entire industry out of these deadly weapons is a much larger danger to the world than nuclear weapons, which only create stalemates.
The American bombing of Japan in World War Two was an exception as America was the only nuclear power for that short period of time. In the modern world, no country dares use nuclear weapons unless they wish complete destruction of life on the planet Earth.
Why did not the United States and the Soviet Union not use their nuclear weapons against each other during the Cold War? Because there is no winner in a nuclear conflict. Why did not America and North Korea engage in a nuclear conflict? Why did India and Pakistan hesitate to go to war after producing nuclear weapons? The answer became clear in all these cases: A nuclear conflict means utter death and destruction on not only the parties involved but also in the surrounding countries caught in such a conflict between the opposing nuclear powers; hence no one with logic will ever use them.
Regular non-nuclear weapons on the other hand are used all over the world and the a major part of the economies of major arms producers depend on such conflicts to keep their arms industries going to feed their continual growth based economies.
And in such a process thousand upon thousands of people are hurt and killed (even non-human species such as plants and animals suffer) simply because some countries feed off these deadly conflicts.
Also when countries purchase arms from their allies to feed their economies in order to keep good relations, they trigger a arms races which is when other countries in the region also pursue similar or the same weapons to keep the balance of power neutral.
Before we know it, all sides are wasting money on weapons and constantly trying to overpower one another, only wasting precious GDP and fueling tensions on all sides. So I ask why has this not been the case for nuclear weapons? When again was the last time nuclear weapons used deliberately to kill or hurt people since World War Two?
Nuclear weapons are not the causes and sources for so many conflicts around the world. It's the dangerous conventional arms market that relies on wars that is the biggest danger and is getting even more dangerous as these conventional weapons get more sophisticated.
Nuclear weapons bring stalemates and keep a decent balance of power around the world. If it wasn't for nuclear weapons distributed around the world, America would probably swallow up China, North Korea, the Russian Federation and others.
India would have also probably swallowed up Pakistan being far bigger had it not been for nuclear weapons.
And with the balance of power uneven on certain sides, the danger of full scale wars breaking out is much, much higher.
I am not trying to advocate nuclear weapons for all or anything close to a nuclear arms race. I am simply against the disarmament of nuclear weapons by countries that currently posses them- including Israel.
It is not nuclear weapons around the world that has caused so many deaths and suffering since World War Two, but these conventional weapons industries that are used to fight small and full scale wars.
Nuclear weapons on the other hand prevent these full scale wars. Many corrupt and dangerous warlords also depend on these conventional weapons to keep their businesses running while many people are hurt/killed in the process in addition to loss of property and infrastructure.
Today some countries are so dependent selling the arms they produce, that excuses to go to war are the only solutions to keep their economies alive. So I ask once again, what is a bigger obstacle to world peace? Nuclear weapons that prevent full scale conflicts due to the devastation they would bring if ever used or conventional weapons industries that are regularly used and have destroyed so many lives?
The solution in my perspective is to greatly reduce this dangerous arms market that only continues to incite wars and are used all over the world everyday.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Background on terrorism.
Author's note: I took up terrorism as a topic in a high school course on the West and the world for my final essay.
I did a background note list and a rough draft which I posted here to share with readers. This is the background note list that I will share in this post.
Background:
-Earliest recorded organized group striving for political goals through the use of force or violence was found in ancient Roman times.
-The group known as Zealots of Judea, a Jewish nationalist group seeking to free the Holy Land from Roman occupation, demonstrated traits of modern day terrorist groups.
-Main traits of ancient terrorist groups were assassinations of arch-rival or opposing groups.
-Other well organized groups have been recorded since then to be carrying out similar acts of violent behavior.
-The use of the word "terrorist" did not come into being until the late seventeenth century during the French revolution.
-The first use of the words "terrorist" and "terrorism" (terrorisme in French) was found in 1795 in reference to the reign of terror committed by the new revolutionary government.
-These words were based on the Latin verb (terrain) to describe the causing of urinate.
-By the nineteenth century with the growth of technology, terrorism saw a new opening.
-Radical policies and the growth of globalization fed the risk of global terrorism even more.
-Empires slowly started to decline as terrorism based on nationalism rose throughout world colonies.
-Terrorist groups lasted for longer periods of time closer to the nineteenth century such as the Irish Republican army in Europe or the Ku Klux Klan in North America which was founded in the eighteen hundreds and both still have underground members even to this day.
-With the availability of modern day technology for modern warfare and improved communication systems in the twentieth century, modern-day terrorist groups become more and more difficult to track down or tackle.
-Early recorded terrorism showed small, but still violent incidents of assigns and fewer open battles.
-Modern day terrorism is shown operating on a much larger scales and includes full scale war against political arch-rivals which can even be states and organizations (ie. Al-Queda and the USA).
Types of terrorism:
-State terrorism is the role of a state or government (or proxy state) using violence or terror to enforce its power on anybody whether it's a foreign country or it's own people.
-Some examples of state terrorism are arrests by governments, executions, military oppression, mass murder against opposing entities or mass murder by opposing sides during wars which are best known as war crimes.
-A well known and accepted historical example of state terrorism is the aftermath of the French revolution where the Bourgeoisie had thousands of people imprisoned, tortured and executed under false charges.
-Current worldwide accepted killings which are classified as examples of war crimes or state terrorism is the famous 1915 Armenian genocide in which up to two million Armenians were allegedly killed by the Ottoman Empire.
Though the incident is disputed, those who claim it to have happen claim the number of two million to have been killed.
-Other examples include the killing of the Jews in World War Two by Hitler's Nazi government, the killings of Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s by Slobodan Moloshevich.
-Ecoterrorism (also called ecological or environmental terrorism) is the destruction or interference of the natural environment or the threat to destroy it by a government/state or political group in order to reach political goals using this destructive measure.
-Examples of environmental terrorism include cutting of water off water supplies to populations, nations or states.
-The use of Biological weapons that strictly cause damage to living beings as opposed to land or infrastructure.
-The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which was adopted in 1998, officially defines such modification or destruction of the environment as a war crime.
-Some witnessed examples of ecoterrorism is the burning of oil well in the first and second Gulf Wars by Saddam Hussein that created heavy fires resulting in massive air pollution.
-Economic terrorism is the act of creating economic chaos by the intimidator to terrorize his/her/its victim to giving in to the intimidator.
-Though the acts of economic terrorism can be extremely harmful they are not necessarily violent acts.
-Examples of this include the economic boycott by more economically powerful nations or states against less powerful economies in an attempt to enforce them to submit to the stronger economic powers demand(s).
-The examples of such practices can include the intimidation of large corporations over smaller markets in order to diminish competition from arch-rival producers.
-Economic terrorism can also be defined as physical attacks on powerful economic sites such as the famous September Eleventh attack on the World Trade Center which is said to be done by Al-Queda in an attempt to damage the American economy which proved to be successful for a temporary period of time.
-To use large profits by rich, powerful individuals and/or companies to have influence on the legal system is also widely accepted as an example of economic terrorism.
-Religious terrorism is the use of force or violence in the name of a religion.
Islamist:
-Islamist groups can be found in mostly Asia and the Middle East.
-Abu Sayyaf Group based in the Philippines with the political objective of creating an independent state for Philippine Muslims through the use of violent attacks for intimidation.
-Groups in Egypt such as Al-Jihad or the Egyptian Islamic Jahid with the objective of the violent overthrow of the Egyptian government and an establishment of a pure Islamic state.
-The famous Al-Queda with the goal of expelling all Western military and civilian presence in the Middle East as well as overthrowing the ruling family of Saudi Arabia.
-Hezbollah, a Lebanese-based group dedicated to the removal of the state of Israel.
Christian:
-The Army of God, a Christian group that has been seeking the end of abortion because they see it as going against their religious teachings. This group is known to have bombed several abortion clinics.
-The Ku Klux Klan which appeared as early as the eighteenth century to terrorize freed black slaves and has sought to keep North America as "White" and Christian. The group has used violence towards people who are not of European descent and not of Christian faith.
Jewish:
-The Jewish defense league has been known to be pushing it's point of view through the use of extremely violent behavior and has been described by the FBI as "a right wing terrorist group."
-The Gush Underground which has sought to terrorize Palestinian-Arab populations out of the Holy Land with the use of violent attacks in many cases. Similar groups have been banned by the government of Israel which fears they threaten peace and the stability of the country.
Buddhist:
Other religiously motivated groups have been found in almost all religion. However they're mostly unheard of because of their underground activities or small populations of their religion.
Some of these other religious oriented terrorist groups include Buddhist groups based in Sri Lanka and Japan, such as the Aum Shinrikyo.
Hindutva:
There are various Hindutva groups that are known to engage in terrorist activity especially in India and among Hindu expatriates living in Western countries.
Hindu Unity for example is a well known terrorist group founded by an Indian expatriate living in the USA by the name of Bajrang Dal whom sees himself as a Hindu nationalist. The organization openly describes itself as anti-Christian and anti-Islam. Hindu Unity is possibly most famous for its "hit list" which seeks to target people who they see as a "threat" to their "religion."
-Political terrorism is used as a tool or as blackmail to influence a change in world events or to intimidate political entities to change their conduct to a way seen more suitable to the imposer or intimidator.
-Political terrorism usually cannot be predicted by its course and international rules of war (ie. the deliberate killings of non-combatants during war is considered a violation of the fourth Geneva convention which forbids the killing of unarmed civilians during war).
-Political terrorism can have a reason behind it, depending on the background of the issue. The terrorists may strike at their targets according to that. For example, if the terrorists want to simply retaliate for an action committed against them or their people, then they may simply attempt to kill their targets in cold blood to gain satisfaction of vengeance.
-In other situations if the terrorists have a demand then they may only take hostages and use them to reach those demands. For example, a Palestinian group by the name of Black September seized members of the Israeli Olympic team in 1972 and held them hostage. They placed in demands for the Israeli government and its supporters worldwide and at the same time had an intimidating message for them.
-In other similar situations the terrorists may repeatedly attack in a form of insurgency until their arch-rivals give in to their demands or simply to force them away from what the terrorists or insurgents see as a threat to their own interests.
-The Irish Republican Army, for example has a long history of setting off bombs across Britain and at British government installments in Ireland in an attempt to intimidate the British government to withdraw from their country and to physically remove their presence in Ireland by attacking their installments.
Inquiry questions:
-What may the future of terrorism be like in decades or even generations form now?
-How does the growth and sophistication of technology increase the threat of terrorism?
-Could issues that affect the world today such as global warming or a shift in economic power amongst countries or the rise of corporations ever become a source of terrorism?
-What would the world do to keep itself safe in the rise of growing capabilities of the terrorists?
-Will Cyber terrorism be another key issue in the rise of technology since it is a growing threat today?
Quotes and sources:
-"Terrorism is a term used to describe violence or other harmful acts committed (or threatened) against civilians." -http://wapedia.mobi/
-"Terrorism:The systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population hereby to bring about a particular political objective" -www.Brittanica.com
-"Terrorism is the use of fear to threaten people or nations to make them do things they do not want to do".- World cultures textbook. (Don't remember the name of author and publisher).
-"Terrorism has been described variously as tactic and strategy; a crime and holy duty; a justified reaction to oppression and an inexcusable abomination." -www.terrorismresearch.com
I did a background note list and a rough draft which I posted here to share with readers. This is the background note list that I will share in this post.
Background:
-Earliest recorded organized group striving for political goals through the use of force or violence was found in ancient Roman times.
-The group known as Zealots of Judea, a Jewish nationalist group seeking to free the Holy Land from Roman occupation, demonstrated traits of modern day terrorist groups.
-Main traits of ancient terrorist groups were assassinations of arch-rival or opposing groups.
-Other well organized groups have been recorded since then to be carrying out similar acts of violent behavior.
-The use of the word "terrorist" did not come into being until the late seventeenth century during the French revolution.
-The first use of the words "terrorist" and "terrorism" (terrorisme in French) was found in 1795 in reference to the reign of terror committed by the new revolutionary government.
-These words were based on the Latin verb (terrain) to describe the causing of urinate.
-By the nineteenth century with the growth of technology, terrorism saw a new opening.
-Radical policies and the growth of globalization fed the risk of global terrorism even more.
-Empires slowly started to decline as terrorism based on nationalism rose throughout world colonies.
-Terrorist groups lasted for longer periods of time closer to the nineteenth century such as the Irish Republican army in Europe or the Ku Klux Klan in North America which was founded in the eighteen hundreds and both still have underground members even to this day.
-With the availability of modern day technology for modern warfare and improved communication systems in the twentieth century, modern-day terrorist groups become more and more difficult to track down or tackle.
-Early recorded terrorism showed small, but still violent incidents of assigns and fewer open battles.
-Modern day terrorism is shown operating on a much larger scales and includes full scale war against political arch-rivals which can even be states and organizations (ie. Al-Queda and the USA).
Types of terrorism:
-State terrorism is the role of a state or government (or proxy state) using violence or terror to enforce its power on anybody whether it's a foreign country or it's own people.
-Some examples of state terrorism are arrests by governments, executions, military oppression, mass murder against opposing entities or mass murder by opposing sides during wars which are best known as war crimes.
-A well known and accepted historical example of state terrorism is the aftermath of the French revolution where the Bourgeoisie had thousands of people imprisoned, tortured and executed under false charges.
-Current worldwide accepted killings which are classified as examples of war crimes or state terrorism is the famous 1915 Armenian genocide in which up to two million Armenians were allegedly killed by the Ottoman Empire.
Though the incident is disputed, those who claim it to have happen claim the number of two million to have been killed.
-Other examples include the killing of the Jews in World War Two by Hitler's Nazi government, the killings of Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s by Slobodan Moloshevich.
-Ecoterrorism (also called ecological or environmental terrorism) is the destruction or interference of the natural environment or the threat to destroy it by a government/state or political group in order to reach political goals using this destructive measure.
-Examples of environmental terrorism include cutting of water off water supplies to populations, nations or states.
-The use of Biological weapons that strictly cause damage to living beings as opposed to land or infrastructure.
-The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which was adopted in 1998, officially defines such modification or destruction of the environment as a war crime.
-Some witnessed examples of ecoterrorism is the burning of oil well in the first and second Gulf Wars by Saddam Hussein that created heavy fires resulting in massive air pollution.
-Economic terrorism is the act of creating economic chaos by the intimidator to terrorize his/her/its victim to giving in to the intimidator.
-Though the acts of economic terrorism can be extremely harmful they are not necessarily violent acts.
-Examples of this include the economic boycott by more economically powerful nations or states against less powerful economies in an attempt to enforce them to submit to the stronger economic powers demand(s).
-The examples of such practices can include the intimidation of large corporations over smaller markets in order to diminish competition from arch-rival producers.
-Economic terrorism can also be defined as physical attacks on powerful economic sites such as the famous September Eleventh attack on the World Trade Center which is said to be done by Al-Queda in an attempt to damage the American economy which proved to be successful for a temporary period of time.
-To use large profits by rich, powerful individuals and/or companies to have influence on the legal system is also widely accepted as an example of economic terrorism.
-Religious terrorism is the use of force or violence in the name of a religion.
Islamist:
-Islamist groups can be found in mostly Asia and the Middle East.
-Abu Sayyaf Group based in the Philippines with the political objective of creating an independent state for Philippine Muslims through the use of violent attacks for intimidation.
-Groups in Egypt such as Al-Jihad or the Egyptian Islamic Jahid with the objective of the violent overthrow of the Egyptian government and an establishment of a pure Islamic state.
-The famous Al-Queda with the goal of expelling all Western military and civilian presence in the Middle East as well as overthrowing the ruling family of Saudi Arabia.
-Hezbollah, a Lebanese-based group dedicated to the removal of the state of Israel.
Christian:
-The Army of God, a Christian group that has been seeking the end of abortion because they see it as going against their religious teachings. This group is known to have bombed several abortion clinics.
-The Ku Klux Klan which appeared as early as the eighteenth century to terrorize freed black slaves and has sought to keep North America as "White" and Christian. The group has used violence towards people who are not of European descent and not of Christian faith.
Jewish:
-The Jewish defense league has been known to be pushing it's point of view through the use of extremely violent behavior and has been described by the FBI as "a right wing terrorist group."
-The Gush Underground which has sought to terrorize Palestinian-Arab populations out of the Holy Land with the use of violent attacks in many cases. Similar groups have been banned by the government of Israel which fears they threaten peace and the stability of the country.
Buddhist:
Other religiously motivated groups have been found in almost all religion. However they're mostly unheard of because of their underground activities or small populations of their religion.
Some of these other religious oriented terrorist groups include Buddhist groups based in Sri Lanka and Japan, such as the Aum Shinrikyo.
Hindutva:
There are various Hindutva groups that are known to engage in terrorist activity especially in India and among Hindu expatriates living in Western countries.
Hindu Unity for example is a well known terrorist group founded by an Indian expatriate living in the USA by the name of Bajrang Dal whom sees himself as a Hindu nationalist. The organization openly describes itself as anti-Christian and anti-Islam. Hindu Unity is possibly most famous for its "hit list" which seeks to target people who they see as a "threat" to their "religion."
-Political terrorism is used as a tool or as blackmail to influence a change in world events or to intimidate political entities to change their conduct to a way seen more suitable to the imposer or intimidator.
-Political terrorism usually cannot be predicted by its course and international rules of war (ie. the deliberate killings of non-combatants during war is considered a violation of the fourth Geneva convention which forbids the killing of unarmed civilians during war).
-Political terrorism can have a reason behind it, depending on the background of the issue. The terrorists may strike at their targets according to that. For example, if the terrorists want to simply retaliate for an action committed against them or their people, then they may simply attempt to kill their targets in cold blood to gain satisfaction of vengeance.
-In other situations if the terrorists have a demand then they may only take hostages and use them to reach those demands. For example, a Palestinian group by the name of Black September seized members of the Israeli Olympic team in 1972 and held them hostage. They placed in demands for the Israeli government and its supporters worldwide and at the same time had an intimidating message for them.
-In other similar situations the terrorists may repeatedly attack in a form of insurgency until their arch-rivals give in to their demands or simply to force them away from what the terrorists or insurgents see as a threat to their own interests.
-The Irish Republican Army, for example has a long history of setting off bombs across Britain and at British government installments in Ireland in an attempt to intimidate the British government to withdraw from their country and to physically remove their presence in Ireland by attacking their installments.
Inquiry questions:
-What may the future of terrorism be like in decades or even generations form now?
-How does the growth and sophistication of technology increase the threat of terrorism?
-Could issues that affect the world today such as global warming or a shift in economic power amongst countries or the rise of corporations ever become a source of terrorism?
-What would the world do to keep itself safe in the rise of growing capabilities of the terrorists?
-Will Cyber terrorism be another key issue in the rise of technology since it is a growing threat today?
Quotes and sources:
-"Terrorism is a term used to describe violence or other harmful acts committed (or threatened) against civilians." -http://wapedia.mobi/
-"Terrorism:The systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population hereby to bring about a particular political objective" -www.Brittanica.com
-"Terrorism is the use of fear to threaten people or nations to make them do things they do not want to do".- World cultures textbook. (Don't remember the name of author and publisher).
-"Terrorism has been described variously as tactic and strategy; a crime and holy duty; a justified reaction to oppression and an inexcusable abomination." -www.terrorismresearch.com
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Reforming experimentation on live specimens
I've always been an opponent on experimenting especially on innocent animals. I endorse it being done on convicted criminals instead provided it does not constitute torture.
I feel the best way to conduct experiments is on animals that cannot be cured and are on the path to death anyways. If the experiment shows signs of doing severe harm or damage on animals, it should be halted and the animals suffering should be put to death instantly.
The same should be done on convicted killers, rapists, child abusers and others sorts of people who are proven guilty and put on the death row. Since the person is already going to be executed the experiment isn't going to make much of a difference. But again should the experiment prove extremely harmful or painful, the specimen should be put to death instantly. That would be the most humane practice that I can currently think of.
But if it was a choice between convicted criminals and plain ordinary animals, I would pick convicted criminals. I know anyone else with true moral values would.
There are those who oppose animal experimentation outright and also some animals rights advocates who wish for plants to be used instead. These people are ignorant and don't realize that plants and animals both have feelings except plants aren't able to display it.
Human beings and animals who have lost all nervous senses also known as 'vegetables' would also be better candidates for experimentation provided that death is also available to them at the first sign of any painful or damaging outcomes of the experiment.
What opponents of animal experimentation should also do is invest in future technology that could serve as an alternate to animal experimentation such as the use of artificial cells or anything else that can replace animal experimentation. I believe this would be the best specimens to experiment on as an alternate and should be developed as soon as possible.
Until that happens opponents of animal experimentation are encouraged to boycott products that are known to be tested on animals and to buy test-free products. The tea tree shampoo that I use for example is free of animal experimentation as per the label on the bottles.
The more people use these kind of products and boycott the products tested on animals, the faster we are likely to see animal experimentation banned. Simply campaigning against it will most likely not stop it.
I feel the best way to conduct experiments is on animals that cannot be cured and are on the path to death anyways. If the experiment shows signs of doing severe harm or damage on animals, it should be halted and the animals suffering should be put to death instantly.
The same should be done on convicted killers, rapists, child abusers and others sorts of people who are proven guilty and put on the death row. Since the person is already going to be executed the experiment isn't going to make much of a difference. But again should the experiment prove extremely harmful or painful, the specimen should be put to death instantly. That would be the most humane practice that I can currently think of.
But if it was a choice between convicted criminals and plain ordinary animals, I would pick convicted criminals. I know anyone else with true moral values would.
There are those who oppose animal experimentation outright and also some animals rights advocates who wish for plants to be used instead. These people are ignorant and don't realize that plants and animals both have feelings except plants aren't able to display it.
Human beings and animals who have lost all nervous senses also known as 'vegetables' would also be better candidates for experimentation provided that death is also available to them at the first sign of any painful or damaging outcomes of the experiment.
What opponents of animal experimentation should also do is invest in future technology that could serve as an alternate to animal experimentation such as the use of artificial cells or anything else that can replace animal experimentation. I believe this would be the best specimens to experiment on as an alternate and should be developed as soon as possible.
Until that happens opponents of animal experimentation are encouraged to boycott products that are known to be tested on animals and to buy test-free products. The tea tree shampoo that I use for example is free of animal experimentation as per the label on the bottles.
The more people use these kind of products and boycott the products tested on animals, the faster we are likely to see animal experimentation banned. Simply campaigning against it will most likely not stop it.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
What is wrong with the global education system
A tutor I had a few years back told me a famous quote (I don't remember who it exactly was by) which said don't let school come in the way of your education.
Now I know exactly what the quote means.
Going back in time to the early years of my life when I attended elementary school in Pakistan, I realize the many causes of my failures and difficulties. The education system structure was simply wrong and today I feel it only adds confusion into the minds of young people.
As an example I encountered many difficulties in math, science and history. I was unable to understand many concepts such as the different categories of animal life except for birds and reptiles due to their similar appearances (ie. scaly skin, feathers etc.). I was unable to categorize other species such as mammals as I had literally no experience in categories.
Who would understand the relationships between cows, wales, humans and other mammals unless through thorough scientific research?
I feel the reason I managed to pull through elementary school was by memorizing most of my material instead of actually understanding it.
It was only later that I was able to understand how categorization works when my father taught me the different members of the cat family.
It was only from there that I understood how biological categorizing works after I observed different families of animals. But most of this came from independent research and discussions with people, not from school.
I know even ask myself, why are children even required to study something at such a young age which rather complex to understand.
Especially over things they have no first hand experience with. As already mentioned, I understood reptiles, birds and their relationships with one another because I had actually seen real life birds, turtles, lizards, snakes and not just from images in a textbook.
The same problems also arise when teaching other subjects such as history. Most of history is dominated by politics. We were made to study things like European and Roman history to the point of boredom.
I had little understanding of ancient history or how humans lived thousands of years ago. I could not picture or imagine how people lived in prehistoric times. Most of the visual insight we were given to ancient civilizations were paintings which is not very accurate.
How is a child supposed to grasp the political history of societies thousands of years ago, when he/she has little knowledge to the current political events of his or her society?
Even when learning about the history of our country Pakistan, we were not taught the Indo-European origins of our people and languages. Most crucial topics in educating us on the origins of our country and prehistory of our people was left out. This was not only because it was not part of the curriculum, but also because the teachers has no idea of this prehistory.
Only at an older age after discovering amazing connections between languages and peoples that most would not expect to be connected, my interest in history and culture skyrocketed.
I have also gained a strong interest in science after learning of interesting scientific facts and theories. With the age of the Internet and flow of free knowledge, I can confidently say I know human history better than most of my teachers did.
I can also confidently say that most of the things I have learned in life is through the Internet and through personal discussions with people knowledgeable in certain fields. Reading books has also been equally advantageous.
One can argue that the Internet is an unreliable source as anyone can post information true or false.
There is truth to this, however the Internet has many advantages that school does not have. If a student is required to research a certain amount of information on a subject, he/she could be spending hours researching through entire books for only one section within a section for the required information.
All the time wasted on this could be used into doing something else useful.
As examples I had to find meanings of listed words as a homework assignment in school. I have always resented using a dictionary knowing how much time and energy can be wasted on looking up each word even in a working order, let alone a list of several words being looked up.
Because it was the early days of the Internet I had to do a bit of web browsing for a dictionary website. But once this was done, I completed the list of words without any problems.
Another example is when I chose to do a history project on Genghis Khan. Instead of having to pull out books and search through them for hours to find information relevant to my project, I simply used Internet websites and video documentaries to help me with my project, using the websites as citations.
The Internet offers other advantages such as almost unlimited info on many topics since websites have more data space than school textbooks.
School also censors certain topics considered "politically incorrect" depending on the country they are taught in. Though access the Internet also gets censored in some countries, it still has no restrictions to what is put online.
As an example the theory of evolution is not taught in many countries due to the religious sensitivity it carries with it, yet the study of biology and comparison of organisms still continues. The question comes up how are these things related to one another since they are so similar?
But because the answer of evolution cannot be discussed, there is more confusion instead of full understanding of the entire subject.
I am not trying to suggest the Internet or virtual schools as a replacement for regular schooling, but rather point out the flaws in the school system worldwide; which only results in people learning through independent research rather than following a collective belief of a society.
The only solution to making school a useful place to learn is to seriously reform the education system and make learning interesting for students so the material doesn't end up being memorized instead of being actually learned.
How to reform the system is a different issue. However; a good start would be easing pressure on students, such as letting them wake later in the morning to start school, when young children need extra hours of rest.
Examinations should also not determine the student's entire grade, rather a fraction of their overall performance through the school year.
I have found that semestered school system is also very useful for students. When I attended high school, I took four courses a semester which made it easier to come though the courses even if they were academic/university level.
Examples like these can serve as good ones in reforming the school system which needs desperate reforming worldwide, no matter in what country.
Now I know exactly what the quote means.
Going back in time to the early years of my life when I attended elementary school in Pakistan, I realize the many causes of my failures and difficulties. The education system structure was simply wrong and today I feel it only adds confusion into the minds of young people.
As an example I encountered many difficulties in math, science and history. I was unable to understand many concepts such as the different categories of animal life except for birds and reptiles due to their similar appearances (ie. scaly skin, feathers etc.). I was unable to categorize other species such as mammals as I had literally no experience in categories.
Who would understand the relationships between cows, wales, humans and other mammals unless through thorough scientific research?
I feel the reason I managed to pull through elementary school was by memorizing most of my material instead of actually understanding it.
It was only later that I was able to understand how categorization works when my father taught me the different members of the cat family.
It was only from there that I understood how biological categorizing works after I observed different families of animals. But most of this came from independent research and discussions with people, not from school.
I know even ask myself, why are children even required to study something at such a young age which rather complex to understand.
Especially over things they have no first hand experience with. As already mentioned, I understood reptiles, birds and their relationships with one another because I had actually seen real life birds, turtles, lizards, snakes and not just from images in a textbook.
The same problems also arise when teaching other subjects such as history. Most of history is dominated by politics. We were made to study things like European and Roman history to the point of boredom.
I had little understanding of ancient history or how humans lived thousands of years ago. I could not picture or imagine how people lived in prehistoric times. Most of the visual insight we were given to ancient civilizations were paintings which is not very accurate.
How is a child supposed to grasp the political history of societies thousands of years ago, when he/she has little knowledge to the current political events of his or her society?
Even when learning about the history of our country Pakistan, we were not taught the Indo-European origins of our people and languages. Most crucial topics in educating us on the origins of our country and prehistory of our people was left out. This was not only because it was not part of the curriculum, but also because the teachers has no idea of this prehistory.
Only at an older age after discovering amazing connections between languages and peoples that most would not expect to be connected, my interest in history and culture skyrocketed.
I have also gained a strong interest in science after learning of interesting scientific facts and theories. With the age of the Internet and flow of free knowledge, I can confidently say I know human history better than most of my teachers did.
I can also confidently say that most of the things I have learned in life is through the Internet and through personal discussions with people knowledgeable in certain fields. Reading books has also been equally advantageous.
One can argue that the Internet is an unreliable source as anyone can post information true or false.
There is truth to this, however the Internet has many advantages that school does not have. If a student is required to research a certain amount of information on a subject, he/she could be spending hours researching through entire books for only one section within a section for the required information.
All the time wasted on this could be used into doing something else useful.
As examples I had to find meanings of listed words as a homework assignment in school. I have always resented using a dictionary knowing how much time and energy can be wasted on looking up each word even in a working order, let alone a list of several words being looked up.
Because it was the early days of the Internet I had to do a bit of web browsing for a dictionary website. But once this was done, I completed the list of words without any problems.
Another example is when I chose to do a history project on Genghis Khan. Instead of having to pull out books and search through them for hours to find information relevant to my project, I simply used Internet websites and video documentaries to help me with my project, using the websites as citations.
The Internet offers other advantages such as almost unlimited info on many topics since websites have more data space than school textbooks.
School also censors certain topics considered "politically incorrect" depending on the country they are taught in. Though access the Internet also gets censored in some countries, it still has no restrictions to what is put online.
As an example the theory of evolution is not taught in many countries due to the religious sensitivity it carries with it, yet the study of biology and comparison of organisms still continues. The question comes up how are these things related to one another since they are so similar?
But because the answer of evolution cannot be discussed, there is more confusion instead of full understanding of the entire subject.
I am not trying to suggest the Internet or virtual schools as a replacement for regular schooling, but rather point out the flaws in the school system worldwide; which only results in people learning through independent research rather than following a collective belief of a society.
The only solution to making school a useful place to learn is to seriously reform the education system and make learning interesting for students so the material doesn't end up being memorized instead of being actually learned.
How to reform the system is a different issue. However; a good start would be easing pressure on students, such as letting them wake later in the morning to start school, when young children need extra hours of rest.
Examinations should also not determine the student's entire grade, rather a fraction of their overall performance through the school year.
I have found that semestered school system is also very useful for students. When I attended high school, I took four courses a semester which made it easier to come though the courses even if they were academic/university level.
Examples like these can serve as good ones in reforming the school system which needs desperate reforming worldwide, no matter in what country.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Western double standards, media wars and patrionization of their pawns as "saints."
Looking through the calls by many western based human rights groups and organizations, I can almost swear they are on the payroll of their governments or that their governments have an influence in their activities.
Most of their "human rights" campaigns seem nothing more than attempts to defame certain countries. These countries they defame and accuse of human rights abuse also happen to be countries that Western Europe and North America have had bad relations with.
An example is their ongoing screeching at China for alleged human rights in Tibet and Xiang. China is growing as a world power in economic, political and military fields. Other examples are Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara or Iran's mistreatment of it's citizens.
But when it comes to other key issues of human rights abuse such as Kashmir, Northern Ireland, or the Basque territory shared by Spain and France, these so-called "human rights" groups/organizations are nowhere to be found. Weather it's public protests or other forms of activism, these "human rights" campaigners are almost non-existent.
Perhaps it's no coincidence too that these abuses that they're so silent on are carried out by traditional allies of these West. Take for example India's actions in Kashmir or other areas. India has been a close ally and proxy of the West against China and what the West sees as the threat of growing Islamic extremism.
Relations between India and the West are not just warm at political levels, but also amongst the people. Westerners also feel very welcomed in India as opposed to Muslim countries where they are suspected as "infidels."
India's Brahmin rulers have traditionally had an obsession with whiteness and a respect for white people. Westerners in turn enjoy this respect and brahmin pride in knowing English and other Western languages.
India's relatively westernized urban areas are portrayed as a symbol of "modernization."
Because of mostly Brahmin rule in India, the country is falsely portrayed as a "champion of human rights."
The Western media has always had a key role in making their allies look good and their enemies look bad from spreading falsified news reports to making propaganda movies.
They make their historic pawns such as Mahatma Gandhi and the Dali Lama look like some sort of "saints."
The riots and rebellions incited by the Dali Lama and the West has harmed and killed many Tibetans. Instead of being held responsible for inciting people to endanger themselves, the Dali Lama is portrayed as some sort of martyr in danger of persecution.
Mahatma Gandhi's racism towards Africans and bigotry towards women is deliberately covered up.
The activities of Islamic terrorist groups are closely covered by the western media to such an extent that it hurts the image of ordinary Muslims.
On the other hand the operation of Hindutva terrorist groups are neither censored, nor given much attention by the same western media.
Below is a video that discuss the activities of the RSS in the UK and calling for their ban:
And these are videos discussing the West's role in destabilizing China and the fraud image of the Dali Lama:
Readers who liked this post should also read this post of mine.
Most of their "human rights" campaigns seem nothing more than attempts to defame certain countries. These countries they defame and accuse of human rights abuse also happen to be countries that Western Europe and North America have had bad relations with.
An example is their ongoing screeching at China for alleged human rights in Tibet and Xiang. China is growing as a world power in economic, political and military fields. Other examples are Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara or Iran's mistreatment of it's citizens.
But when it comes to other key issues of human rights abuse such as Kashmir, Northern Ireland, or the Basque territory shared by Spain and France, these so-called "human rights" groups/organizations are nowhere to be found. Weather it's public protests or other forms of activism, these "human rights" campaigners are almost non-existent.
Perhaps it's no coincidence too that these abuses that they're so silent on are carried out by traditional allies of these West. Take for example India's actions in Kashmir or other areas. India has been a close ally and proxy of the West against China and what the West sees as the threat of growing Islamic extremism.
Relations between India and the West are not just warm at political levels, but also amongst the people. Westerners also feel very welcomed in India as opposed to Muslim countries where they are suspected as "infidels."
India's Brahmin rulers have traditionally had an obsession with whiteness and a respect for white people. Westerners in turn enjoy this respect and brahmin pride in knowing English and other Western languages.
India's relatively westernized urban areas are portrayed as a symbol of "modernization."
Because of mostly Brahmin rule in India, the country is falsely portrayed as a "champion of human rights."
The Western media has always had a key role in making their allies look good and their enemies look bad from spreading falsified news reports to making propaganda movies.
They make their historic pawns such as Mahatma Gandhi and the Dali Lama look like some sort of "saints."
The riots and rebellions incited by the Dali Lama and the West has harmed and killed many Tibetans. Instead of being held responsible for inciting people to endanger themselves, the Dali Lama is portrayed as some sort of martyr in danger of persecution.
Mahatma Gandhi's racism towards Africans and bigotry towards women is deliberately covered up.
The activities of Islamic terrorist groups are closely covered by the western media to such an extent that it hurts the image of ordinary Muslims.
On the other hand the operation of Hindutva terrorist groups are neither censored, nor given much attention by the same western media.
Below is a video that discuss the activities of the RSS in the UK and calling for their ban:
And these are videos discussing the West's role in destabilizing China and the fraud image of the Dali Lama:
Readers who liked this post should also read this post of mine.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Essay on terrorism
I took up terrorism as a topic to write an essay about for a course I took in high school. This is a rough draft of the thesis that I submitted before working on the full essay. I decided to share it in this post before disposing my rough copy.
Thesis:
What are the possible causes of terrorism?
Political reasons
The question to why people turn to terrorism as a tactic, which is considered often to be inhuman or violent in most modern-day civilizations is dependent not always on how their living conditions are but what kind of situation they live in and/or what political beliefs they hold.
The actions of terrorists are often seen as random criminal acts; but they each serve a purpose.
The purpose is either to create fear in the minds of the victims or gain more attention to their cause. If people are desperate to push for or to prevent a radical, social or political change for their own reasons, but are unable to do so, they may turn to terrorism as a last resort out of desperation.
The first purpose, which is to cause fear or intimidation or an atmosphere of fear, is through the destruction of property and loss of life to create such an atmosphere.
For example one of the world's most famous terrorists, Osama Bin Laden, who was strongly opposed to the presence of the American military in his home country Saudi Arabia, carried out a series of attacks at American bases through out the Arabian peninsula in a failed attempt to frighten the Americans away.
He also felt that the Saudi government was betraying his people and sought to intimidate the Saudi government to giving into his demands by bombing police stations and other government installations. As a result he was exiled forever from his country and had his Saudi citizenship permanently removed.
Terrorism is not usually directed towards un-involved individuals or bystanders. Though terrorists are usually selective about their targets, it is not always the case; especially if the outcome of the terrorist attack meets the objective of the terrorists.
For example in 1995, the famous Oklahoma bombing committed by Timothy McVeigh, was an attack directed straight at the US government. Most of the casualties were civilians including nineteen children. However McVeigh, the attacker openly stated that was his primary objective: To cause maximum damage and (even at the risk the lives of innocent bystanders) to the American government whom he saw as the greatest threat to the American people and to the world.
Though the bystanders killed in the incident were not the main targets, McVeigh argued that the purpose of the attack was to express his full defiance of the American government.
Another alternate purpose in political terrorism is to bring the world's attention to a cause or a forgotten issue.
As an example after the world's attention turned away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the upcoming 1972 Olympics, the Palestinian terror group known by the name of Black September used this event to regain the world's attention back to the ongoing Middle East crisis.
Just as the Olympics in Munich, Germany started, the Black September seized members of the Israeli Olympic team and took them as hostages. They managed to kill eleven of them. The result was a shootout in which the hostages were all killed and a German police officer dead in the shootout.
Three militants died and two were arrested by the German police. Despite this, their goals has been achieved:
The world's attention turned back to the ongoing Middle East crisis. Impacts such as those are seen as necessary to make a political point across.
The chain of events that followed also caused many countries to withdraw their teams from the Olympics, which also included Israel for fear of security.
Social reasons
Terrorism can also be used as a weapon to prevent social change in a society. An example of this is the experiences of Abu Al-Saf, an Egyptian national who had gone away to the United States during the 1960s and 70s.
His experience led him to hate American society and what he saw as "greed." People did not seem to show an interest in what happened in societies around them and were completely disconnected from the events taking place in the rest of the world. He noticed people caring too much about themselves to the slightest bit such as being able to score ahead in a game of bowling.
He saw massive advertisement and consumerism taking place. In his opinions, life in the West was all about consumerism and selfishness.
After returning to his home country of Egypt, he was particularly alarmed when he saw western products and massive advertisements being targeted at Egyptian customers. Abu Al-Saf feared that the Western culture of greed, selfishness and consumerist culture was slowly creeping into the Egyptian population.
After the Egyptian government ignored repeated protests by him and his colleagues to stop this massive western marketing system in the country, Al-Saf helped set up the Egyptian Islamic Jihad to resist what they saw as the westernization of Egypt and began their crusade to overthrow the Egyptian government and replace it with a non-secular, Sharia-style Islamist government to resist this social change in their country.
As a result, this right-wing group was banned in Egypt and several other Islamic countries with many members and supporters jailed.
However, this group has been consistent in attacking Egyptian government installations and property outside the country to continue their resistance of what they saw as massive social changes introduced by the Egyptian government, such as the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan in November of 1995 which wounded sixty people.
At other times, terrorism is also used to promote social changes such as overturning the growth of modern capitalist societies in Western Europe and North American saw the creation and growth of the most left-wing extremist terrorist organizations.
For example, a large group of home-grown terrorists in the USA going by the name of "the Weathermen," sought to extinguish the capitalist system by launching attacks on banks and companies.
They are known to have carried out at least 4,300 bombings across the USA. Another example is the Red brigade of Italy that also carried out a series of attacks. They attacked factories and communication centers as well as kidnapping and murdering former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro. Their main objective was to frighten the Italian state into giving up on capitalism through the use of these terrorist attacks.
Their actions and promotion of their political goals through the use of terrorism has found them little public sympathy in their home countries and has led to countless arrests of group members.
Even trade unions and socialist parties have strongly condemned the Italian Red Brigade for it's rather violent conduct.
Ironically they (terrorists) do not always come from impoverished classes, yet they feel for the working class and consider them their fellow "exploited" working class.
State terrorism
A country may use the act of state terrorism as a means of controlling the political situation in it's best interest.
For example, the state of Israel saw the organization of Hezbollah and it's supporters in the Lebanese government and population as a threat to it's safety. After refusals by the Lebanese government and the Lebanese population to disarm Hezbollah, Israel took matters into its own control by responding to Hezbollah attacks with counter attacks of its own and through temporary invasions of Lebanon both in the 1980s and most recently in the summer of 2006.
Israel also bombed civilian targets in Lebanon which they felt were harboring Hezbollah militants and as an attempt to warn the Lebanese population of the consequences for what at least Israel saw as their support for Hezbollah.
Such actions regarded as state terrorism by Israel could arguably be caused by its fear of Hezbollah and the rise of anti-Israeli militancy in the Middle East.
The use of state terrorism can serve other purposes as well and also has its causes. Another example is to maintain political power of one nation over other nations to protect its personal interests to maintain a stable economy. This can be arguably when political groups or entities resist that government political agenda.
Other examples of state terrorism can be caused when one state tries to counter the control or influence of another.
Saddam Hussein for example resisted American political interests in the Middle East. As a result, he was ousted. State terrorism such as this is seen by a state to protect its interests and a reaction to anything it sees as a threat to its political goals.
A state can also commit terrorism against its own citizens which is caused by the fear of civil disobedience or fear of loosing domestic stability. In one case in 1984, Sikh nationalists sought to establish a separate state by the name of Khalistan, independent from India. They even carried out bombings of civil airliners and took refuge in Sikhism's holiest shrine.
The Indian government took harsh steps to curb the Sikh militants and the ongoing insurgency. The government of India took further steps to frighten the Sikh community into silence by sponsoring public pogroms against Sikh civilians resulting in the deaths of thousands of Sikhs. Ever since then, the Khalistan movement has been rather abandoned or kept more secretive.
A similar reaction took place since 1947 in Kashmir when the British left the territory disputed between India and Pakistan. When Kashmiris sought to have an independent state from India and Pakistan, India's government feared loosing the region.
In reaction to the growing Kashmiri movement, the Indian government invaded Kashmir and attacked all those it suspected of trying to separate Kashmir from India. In the process many civilians were also said to be killed in an attempt to intimidate Kashmiris into accepting Indian rule and further resistance.
Ever since then, the vast majority of Kashmir has remained under Indian and Pakistani military occupation.
Nationalistic terrorism
Terrorism can also be caused by nationalistic or feelings of one's culture, ethnicity or nationality being threatened by another.
Examples of these are the Neo-Nazi movement in Europe and North America against immigration.
In a more specific case, Bruce Carroll Pierce, a right-wing Ku Klux Klan member sought to ethnically cleanse the western United States and establish a new state for people of European, Christian descent (white nationalists don't accept Jews in their movements even if they are of European descent). During the 1980s, Peirce and his KKK gang set a series of bombs across the United States and set out on an 18 month terrorist campaign in which religious and ethnic minorities were also targeted.
Other forms of nationalistic terrorism can include the efforts to free one's nation of being part of another. For example the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has been around since the beginning of the nineteenth century but was on the rise in its terrorist campaigns in the 1970s in an attempt to free all of Ireland and establish an independent state for the Irish people.
The group has a history of setting off bombs all across Britain, even in civilian population areas and attempting to carry out several assassinations.
Similar examples of such acts can be seen through out the world, with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) seeking to drive off the state of Israel off Palestinian lands and seeking an independent Palestinian state. The Balochistan Liberation army is another example, which seeks a separate homeland for the Baloch people of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In Chechnya, rebels seek to make Chechnya an independent state, separated from the Russian Federation. Their nationalist campaign has resulted in thousands of people being killed on both sides, including many civilians.
Psychological terrorism
Terrorists can sometimes be merely their own victims. On many occasions, terrorists are simply brainwashed individuals who do not have a clear mind of what they are doing. For example during the Lebanese civil war which lasted from 1975 till 1990, many young Muslim boys were brainwashed into joining and serving Islamist groups such as Hezbollah and participating in frequent campaigns against archival groups.
Even in Palestinian nationalist groups such as Hamas, many boys as young as their early teens were taught about the rewards God would give them if they were to martyr themselves or die for a cause. With this message they were successfully able to breed an army of volunteers who later became suicide bombers.
In other similar cases there are cults worldwide that are able to gain followers to push their cause with the use of terrorism (also used as a weapon by cults sometimes) through their technique of brainwashing.
According to perisonplanet.com, cults are able to gain followers by keeping that person unaware of what she/he's going through. usually terrorists/cults can be attractive to people usually isolated from societies, people whom are neglected or people whom are not of strong educated background.
A strong example was the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan financed religious madrassas for Afghan refugees to be brainwashed and become Islamist terrorists. They were seen as the perfect tool by the United States government to fight the threat of communist expansion beyond Soviet borders. As a result, Afghanistan became a safe heaven for many terrorists.
Many of them, including the Taliban consisted of brainwashed, uneducated and radicalized young men who served their purpose without question. This later on resulted in terrorist attacks against those who did not share such radical beliefs, including the United States which has become a target of this.
Thesis:
What are the possible causes of terrorism?
Political reasons
The question to why people turn to terrorism as a tactic, which is considered often to be inhuman or violent in most modern-day civilizations is dependent not always on how their living conditions are but what kind of situation they live in and/or what political beliefs they hold.
The actions of terrorists are often seen as random criminal acts; but they each serve a purpose.
The purpose is either to create fear in the minds of the victims or gain more attention to their cause. If people are desperate to push for or to prevent a radical, social or political change for their own reasons, but are unable to do so, they may turn to terrorism as a last resort out of desperation.
The first purpose, which is to cause fear or intimidation or an atmosphere of fear, is through the destruction of property and loss of life to create such an atmosphere.
For example one of the world's most famous terrorists, Osama Bin Laden, who was strongly opposed to the presence of the American military in his home country Saudi Arabia, carried out a series of attacks at American bases through out the Arabian peninsula in a failed attempt to frighten the Americans away.
He also felt that the Saudi government was betraying his people and sought to intimidate the Saudi government to giving into his demands by bombing police stations and other government installations. As a result he was exiled forever from his country and had his Saudi citizenship permanently removed.
Terrorism is not usually directed towards un-involved individuals or bystanders. Though terrorists are usually selective about their targets, it is not always the case; especially if the outcome of the terrorist attack meets the objective of the terrorists.
For example in 1995, the famous Oklahoma bombing committed by Timothy McVeigh, was an attack directed straight at the US government. Most of the casualties were civilians including nineteen children. However McVeigh, the attacker openly stated that was his primary objective: To cause maximum damage and (even at the risk the lives of innocent bystanders) to the American government whom he saw as the greatest threat to the American people and to the world.
Though the bystanders killed in the incident were not the main targets, McVeigh argued that the purpose of the attack was to express his full defiance of the American government.
Another alternate purpose in political terrorism is to bring the world's attention to a cause or a forgotten issue.
As an example after the world's attention turned away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the upcoming 1972 Olympics, the Palestinian terror group known by the name of Black September used this event to regain the world's attention back to the ongoing Middle East crisis.
Just as the Olympics in Munich, Germany started, the Black September seized members of the Israeli Olympic team and took them as hostages. They managed to kill eleven of them. The result was a shootout in which the hostages were all killed and a German police officer dead in the shootout.
Three militants died and two were arrested by the German police. Despite this, their goals has been achieved:
The world's attention turned back to the ongoing Middle East crisis. Impacts such as those are seen as necessary to make a political point across.
The chain of events that followed also caused many countries to withdraw their teams from the Olympics, which also included Israel for fear of security.
Social reasons
Terrorism can also be used as a weapon to prevent social change in a society. An example of this is the experiences of Abu Al-Saf, an Egyptian national who had gone away to the United States during the 1960s and 70s.
His experience led him to hate American society and what he saw as "greed." People did not seem to show an interest in what happened in societies around them and were completely disconnected from the events taking place in the rest of the world. He noticed people caring too much about themselves to the slightest bit such as being able to score ahead in a game of bowling.
He saw massive advertisement and consumerism taking place. In his opinions, life in the West was all about consumerism and selfishness.
After returning to his home country of Egypt, he was particularly alarmed when he saw western products and massive advertisements being targeted at Egyptian customers. Abu Al-Saf feared that the Western culture of greed, selfishness and consumerist culture was slowly creeping into the Egyptian population.
After the Egyptian government ignored repeated protests by him and his colleagues to stop this massive western marketing system in the country, Al-Saf helped set up the Egyptian Islamic Jihad to resist what they saw as the westernization of Egypt and began their crusade to overthrow the Egyptian government and replace it with a non-secular, Sharia-style Islamist government to resist this social change in their country.
As a result, this right-wing group was banned in Egypt and several other Islamic countries with many members and supporters jailed.
However, this group has been consistent in attacking Egyptian government installations and property outside the country to continue their resistance of what they saw as massive social changes introduced by the Egyptian government, such as the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan in November of 1995 which wounded sixty people.
At other times, terrorism is also used to promote social changes such as overturning the growth of modern capitalist societies in Western Europe and North American saw the creation and growth of the most left-wing extremist terrorist organizations.
For example, a large group of home-grown terrorists in the USA going by the name of "the Weathermen," sought to extinguish the capitalist system by launching attacks on banks and companies.
They are known to have carried out at least 4,300 bombings across the USA. Another example is the Red brigade of Italy that also carried out a series of attacks. They attacked factories and communication centers as well as kidnapping and murdering former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro. Their main objective was to frighten the Italian state into giving up on capitalism through the use of these terrorist attacks.
Their actions and promotion of their political goals through the use of terrorism has found them little public sympathy in their home countries and has led to countless arrests of group members.
Even trade unions and socialist parties have strongly condemned the Italian Red Brigade for it's rather violent conduct.
Ironically they (terrorists) do not always come from impoverished classes, yet they feel for the working class and consider them their fellow "exploited" working class.
State terrorism
A country may use the act of state terrorism as a means of controlling the political situation in it's best interest.
For example, the state of Israel saw the organization of Hezbollah and it's supporters in the Lebanese government and population as a threat to it's safety. After refusals by the Lebanese government and the Lebanese population to disarm Hezbollah, Israel took matters into its own control by responding to Hezbollah attacks with counter attacks of its own and through temporary invasions of Lebanon both in the 1980s and most recently in the summer of 2006.
Israel also bombed civilian targets in Lebanon which they felt were harboring Hezbollah militants and as an attempt to warn the Lebanese population of the consequences for what at least Israel saw as their support for Hezbollah.
Such actions regarded as state terrorism by Israel could arguably be caused by its fear of Hezbollah and the rise of anti-Israeli militancy in the Middle East.
The use of state terrorism can serve other purposes as well and also has its causes. Another example is to maintain political power of one nation over other nations to protect its personal interests to maintain a stable economy. This can be arguably when political groups or entities resist that government political agenda.
Other examples of state terrorism can be caused when one state tries to counter the control or influence of another.
Saddam Hussein for example resisted American political interests in the Middle East. As a result, he was ousted. State terrorism such as this is seen by a state to protect its interests and a reaction to anything it sees as a threat to its political goals.
A state can also commit terrorism against its own citizens which is caused by the fear of civil disobedience or fear of loosing domestic stability. In one case in 1984, Sikh nationalists sought to establish a separate state by the name of Khalistan, independent from India. They even carried out bombings of civil airliners and took refuge in Sikhism's holiest shrine.
The Indian government took harsh steps to curb the Sikh militants and the ongoing insurgency. The government of India took further steps to frighten the Sikh community into silence by sponsoring public pogroms against Sikh civilians resulting in the deaths of thousands of Sikhs. Ever since then, the Khalistan movement has been rather abandoned or kept more secretive.
A similar reaction took place since 1947 in Kashmir when the British left the territory disputed between India and Pakistan. When Kashmiris sought to have an independent state from India and Pakistan, India's government feared loosing the region.
In reaction to the growing Kashmiri movement, the Indian government invaded Kashmir and attacked all those it suspected of trying to separate Kashmir from India. In the process many civilians were also said to be killed in an attempt to intimidate Kashmiris into accepting Indian rule and further resistance.
Ever since then, the vast majority of Kashmir has remained under Indian and Pakistani military occupation.
Nationalistic terrorism
Terrorism can also be caused by nationalistic or feelings of one's culture, ethnicity or nationality being threatened by another.
Examples of these are the Neo-Nazi movement in Europe and North America against immigration.
In a more specific case, Bruce Carroll Pierce, a right-wing Ku Klux Klan member sought to ethnically cleanse the western United States and establish a new state for people of European, Christian descent (white nationalists don't accept Jews in their movements even if they are of European descent). During the 1980s, Peirce and his KKK gang set a series of bombs across the United States and set out on an 18 month terrorist campaign in which religious and ethnic minorities were also targeted.
Other forms of nationalistic terrorism can include the efforts to free one's nation of being part of another. For example the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has been around since the beginning of the nineteenth century but was on the rise in its terrorist campaigns in the 1970s in an attempt to free all of Ireland and establish an independent state for the Irish people.
The group has a history of setting off bombs all across Britain, even in civilian population areas and attempting to carry out several assassinations.
Similar examples of such acts can be seen through out the world, with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) seeking to drive off the state of Israel off Palestinian lands and seeking an independent Palestinian state. The Balochistan Liberation army is another example, which seeks a separate homeland for the Baloch people of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In Chechnya, rebels seek to make Chechnya an independent state, separated from the Russian Federation. Their nationalist campaign has resulted in thousands of people being killed on both sides, including many civilians.
Psychological terrorism
Terrorists can sometimes be merely their own victims. On many occasions, terrorists are simply brainwashed individuals who do not have a clear mind of what they are doing. For example during the Lebanese civil war which lasted from 1975 till 1990, many young Muslim boys were brainwashed into joining and serving Islamist groups such as Hezbollah and participating in frequent campaigns against archival groups.
Even in Palestinian nationalist groups such as Hamas, many boys as young as their early teens were taught about the rewards God would give them if they were to martyr themselves or die for a cause. With this message they were successfully able to breed an army of volunteers who later became suicide bombers.
In other similar cases there are cults worldwide that are able to gain followers to push their cause with the use of terrorism (also used as a weapon by cults sometimes) through their technique of brainwashing.
According to perisonplanet.com, cults are able to gain followers by keeping that person unaware of what she/he's going through. usually terrorists/cults can be attractive to people usually isolated from societies, people whom are neglected or people whom are not of strong educated background.
A strong example was the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan financed religious madrassas for Afghan refugees to be brainwashed and become Islamist terrorists. They were seen as the perfect tool by the United States government to fight the threat of communist expansion beyond Soviet borders. As a result, Afghanistan became a safe heaven for many terrorists.
Many of them, including the Taliban consisted of brainwashed, uneducated and radicalized young men who served their purpose without question. This later on resulted in terrorist attacks against those who did not share such radical beliefs, including the United States which has become a target of this.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Why not call it Middle Eastern Gulf?
I'm sure most readers have heard about the controversy regarding the naming of the Gulf that lies between Iran and the Arab-majority states.
Iran's Persian population have insisted it be called the Persian Gulf while it's Arab states insist it be called Arabian Gulf.
Both sides have provided valid points for their arguments.
Both sides publish maps from their countries using the name each side believes in.
From the Arab arguments I've read, the fact that most of the inhabitants living on the shores of the Gulf is the reason for naming it Arabian Gulf.
Even on parts of the Iranian coast, there are Arabs from Iran's Khuzestan province who live on the Gulf shores, as Khuzestan is mainly an Arab province of Iran bordering the Gulf.
The Persian argument has been that the region was historically known as the Persian Gulf and should stay as such.
I find the Arab argument very valid, but at the same time not everyone living on the shores of this Gulf is an Arab.
There are many Persians and Balochis who inhabit it's shores as well.
Others have some up with more neutral terms such as Persian/Arabian Gulf or Islamic Gulf.
The second suggestion I find less helpful since Islamic is a religion and there are many Gulf's around the Islamic world who's shores are inhabited by Muslims.
Additionally the Gulf between Iran and Arab states is bound to be inhabited by Christians and Zoroastrians as well, so it cannot be "Islamic Gulf."
The best solution in my opinion is renaming it "Middle Eastern Gulf."
As far as I know, there is only one gulf in the Middle East.
This name is a geographic name and not one belonging to any ethnicity like Persian or 'Arabian.'
Middle Eastern Gulf is the best name, considering that the Middle East consists of non-Arab majority states as well, such as Iran, Turkey and Israel.
As far as I know, none of the countries in the Middle East weather Iran, Israel or Turkey rejects this geographic name 'Middle East' hence I think the best solution is renaming it Middle Eastern Gulf.
Iran's Persian population have insisted it be called the Persian Gulf while it's Arab states insist it be called Arabian Gulf.
Both sides have provided valid points for their arguments.
Both sides publish maps from their countries using the name each side believes in.
From the Arab arguments I've read, the fact that most of the inhabitants living on the shores of the Gulf is the reason for naming it Arabian Gulf.
Even on parts of the Iranian coast, there are Arabs from Iran's Khuzestan province who live on the Gulf shores, as Khuzestan is mainly an Arab province of Iran bordering the Gulf.
The Persian argument has been that the region was historically known as the Persian Gulf and should stay as such.
I find the Arab argument very valid, but at the same time not everyone living on the shores of this Gulf is an Arab.
There are many Persians and Balochis who inhabit it's shores as well.
Others have some up with more neutral terms such as Persian/Arabian Gulf or Islamic Gulf.
The second suggestion I find less helpful since Islamic is a religion and there are many Gulf's around the Islamic world who's shores are inhabited by Muslims.
Additionally the Gulf between Iran and Arab states is bound to be inhabited by Christians and Zoroastrians as well, so it cannot be "Islamic Gulf."
The best solution in my opinion is renaming it "Middle Eastern Gulf."
As far as I know, there is only one gulf in the Middle East.
This name is a geographic name and not one belonging to any ethnicity like Persian or 'Arabian.'
Middle Eastern Gulf is the best name, considering that the Middle East consists of non-Arab majority states as well, such as Iran, Turkey and Israel.
As far as I know, none of the countries in the Middle East weather Iran, Israel or Turkey rejects this geographic name 'Middle East' hence I think the best solution is renaming it Middle Eastern Gulf.
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