The tensions arising from the Lebanon assassination continues to rise as Israel claims they have proof of Syria's involvement in the Tel Aviv suicide bombing of last Friday and Syria's President feels attacks are likely against it.


This commentary offers a different viewpoint from those written in most mainstream papers of Rafiq Hariri, his character and his assassination. Especially true is that of Hariri's personal history which hasn't been mentioned in detail in many articles and his supposed "anti-Syrian" stance.
Not to be forgotten is that until recently the US has actually enlisted Syria as a partner in the "War on terror" by using it as a convenient dumping post for interrogating terrorism suspects including Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar.

A suicide attack struck Tel Aviv Friday night, killing 4 people. However almost instantly Israeli officials have cast blame towards Syria and Islamic Jihad, which is based in Syria, which initially denied responsibility for the attack only for a supposed official of the group to claim responsibility.
While I don't overlook those victims who were killed and wounded, it seems so fortuitous that following Syrian blame for the recent death of a former Lebanese prime minister, now again blame is cast on Syria for the bombing in Israel.
Why the speculation and insinuation? Because I don't think any country would be foolish enough to launch any attacks in another country, especially one that is the regional powerhouse, when there's already heat on it for a previous incident (Rafiri's assassination). If we accept the Israeli's accusations as truth, it's almost as if the Syrians are begging for American/ Israeli armed intervention against them.
This incident seems to have united Lebanese of different religions and ethnicities into a common goal of forcing the removal of Syrian presence in their country and its affairs, as evidenced by angry protests in Beirut, their capital and strong statements made by Lebanese politicians.


Colin Powell criticises the US policy for rebuilding Iraq after invasion for the first time. No doubt that of the key members in GWBush's first administration, he was the least hawkish and most reasonable with respects to world relations though unfortunately this respected and faithful servant lost substantial credibility during his tenure, especially when he presented the US case for invasion in front the United Nations.

From alternet.org, here's 2 articles dealing with books on the growing significance of slums around the world and the ways how western powers exploit smaller,weaker countries and effectively control using economic means.

The first article describes slums and how their growth possibly signals a new kind of political movement. It describes how as slums are becoming more populated and established, they are taking on a look of permanence with banks, supermarkets and restaurants being opened inside them, as well people who live in slums represent a new class of citizens. It also includes reviews of 2 books on the world of slums.
The article features a numbing fact "Eighty-five percent of the developing world's urban population now lives in slums" which shows how in spite of growing prosperity of developing countries including India and Brazil, many of their people are still poor and are not even properly housed.

This other article is an interview with a former economist/consultant who wrote a book called Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in which he describes the way how rich nations, specifically the USA would go into poorer nations and offer them big loans for national projects which would then be contracted to American companies. Saddled with debt from the big loans, these poor nations would then be forced to turn to the US government, the WorldBank and other major financial institutions for even more money, making them reliant on foreign aid and deepening their national debt. Really sobering and quite ingenious in a sinister way, how through seemingly harmless business deals and loans a country can be brought under control and its resources exploited by a powerful nation.
The article gives a clearer idea of how many peoples' lives can be affected by policies of richer nations, albeit through non-violent but equally criminal means. From this, it's easy to derive why there's so much hatred and anger over richer countries by people around the world.

Following the death of respected former Lebanese prime minister Rafiri, there's been strong outpurings of grief and outrage against the Syrians, who basically control Lebanon through political allies in the Lebanese government and their army which has around 15,000 troops stationed in Lebanon.

While this situation of Syrian dominance over their neighbor may not be just, there is no question that the US and consequently Israel stand to gain a lot from it. Already GWBush is telling Syria to get its troops out of Lebanon and to keep its hands off upcoming Lebanese elections in May, to leave it "free and fair".
You certainly think the US should do the same and follow its own advice.

A quick post tonight. Though I'm quite busy these days, I had to take note of today's headline story: former Lebanese president Rafik Hariri assassinated by a massive car or road-side bomb. And suspicions by the US mount towards the Syrians . who've had a heavy influence on Lebanese politics for the last decade or so (just like the US has in a bunch of countries including obviously Iraq).

God only knows whether this is a ploy for the US to take some sort of military action against Syria. If it really was Syria who was behind this, then it's a perfect cover for the US to start threatening them with sanctions and military actionAlready the US has recalled its ambassador to Syria and holds Syria responsible for this tragedy.
Though it may seem right to cast fingers on Syria for this action, especially as the killed former president was an outspoken critic of Syrian influence in his country, it really seems absurd that with American forces stationed right across the border in Iraq and GWBush publicly stating his aim to defeat terrorism by taking on nations like Syria and Iran, that Syria would pull something big like this.

Sticking with the topic is this article in Israeli newspaper Haaretz which says in a meeting with a US cabinet undersecretary, Israeli leader Ariel Sharon advises action against countries like Libya and Syria.

As a Christian I fully believe in Christian values being used in dealing with injustice in the world.
However too often people in power use Christian (and other religions) messages and values to justify their actions and then proceed to manipulate them for their own not so righteous purposes.
There's always one major aspect of Christianity that's missing in these situations, and that is Compassion. Whether it's respect, tolerance, love, forgiveness or acceptance, service to others Compassion is hardly mentioned or enacted by leaders when using religion as a subtext in politics, conflicts and world affairs eg. Iraq, Middle East conflict.

Jimmy Carter:
"Christ was committed to compassion for the most destitute, poor, needy, and forgotten people in our society." taken from Alternet interview described below


Here're 2 fine interviews with prominent world figures who speak out against the misrepresentation of christian values in politics and world affairs and advocate for greater compassion for others.

An interview with Nobel Peace prize winner Desmond Tutu of South Africa. In it he speaks out on a range of topics like fundamentalism,the misuse of religion to stir conflicts, AIDS in his country, the re-election of GWBush and Iraq.

Another interview with former US president Jimmy Carter. He talks about the current ties between the Republican conservatives and christians and the decline of religious values from the Democrat party's main issues. He also gives his opinions on how he deals with the conflict of Democratic support for abortion and gay-rights with his own Christian values.

There was a good deal of attention paid to the Rwandan genocide, with last year being the 10th anniversary of it and the release of a book by Romeo Dallaire, the head of the UN force in that country at the time but who was powerless to intervene.
Recently the movie Hotel Rwanda came out on cinema and it was quite moving from what I heard.

A lot of people know about the tragedy that occured during the genocide, how from an alleged assasination of the Rwandan president who was Hutu, events continued out of control until Hutus went on a rampage killing over 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
However the history behind that is generally unknown or little-known. Rwandan's colonial masters, the Belgians had a major part to play in creating and building up the tensions from the 1930s when they classified the native peoples into 2 different tribes, the Hutus and Tutsis.
This article on Zmag is a review of a book "Conspiracy to murder" that describes in detail the history behind the genocide going back 100 years. The article itself gives a good brief summary of these events in history which educates many viewers a little more on the genocide.


These recent years have seen an astonishing amount of arrogance shown by America's government, as well as destruction and deceit. It's no surprise that America's prestige and reverence around the world has been eroded and replaced by annoyance and hatred. Not just prestige, but respect and admiration for aspects of American society including its system of democracy, economic and foreign policies and universities are steadily declining and countries all over are looking to other emerging powers for inspiration and leadership.

With work and a little lethargy these days as well as some planning for the future, haven't done much news and world affairs reading.
However I did have a chance to talk a little with a Toronto college teacher Mr. I. Khadduri who's a former head of the nuclear weapons program of Iraq but NOT a Saddam supporter, a staunch patriot and strongly outspoken against the actions and motives of GWBush and his administration. He's got a blog abutamam.blogspot.com where he writes his opinions, in both english and arabic, of events and news as well as links to articles of his homeland. He's been interviewed by various news outlets and even mentioned briefly in the esteemed activist and thinker Noam Chomsky's book Hegemony or survival.
For years he's been speaking out against America's policies regarding Iraq, especially during the beginning of the invasion in 2003 (when he was featured on the front page of the Toronto Star).
His opinions on the US occupation in Iraq bear much consideration as they give insight into the rage and bitterness felt by ordinary Iraqis against the Americans which obviously he shares.

The very recent national election held on Sunday heralded a new age in Iraq. However whether it's for the better or the worse is still undetermined. It's good to see people happy and proud, brave and excited on their country's future, please don't consider this election an overwhelming success yet. Regardless of the continued optimistic coverage displayed on tv and the newspapers in the aftermath, it's still early to think the people are going to really gain self control of their country and improve conditions.

A set of brief but detailed answers to key questions concerning the sitation in Iraq.