A kidnapped international Red Cross worker was found shot to death, the organization said Friday, expressing its concerns about escalating violence that threatens elections to replace ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "Elections are the bridge to democracy," trumpets a slogan to persuade frightened Haitians to vote.
Liberty's the bridge to democracy. If you're not living in fear of your life from roving bands of banditti, you can vote, just like you can do most other things. Emma Goldman was a hairy old bitch.
Crossing that bridge is proving anything but easy.
That's usually the case when you confuse the effect with the cause...
Daily killings and kidnappings, dismally low voter registration and logistical snags are forcing election organizers to consider tough choices, including suggestions of delaying the balloting in some areas.
Which brings up the libertarian dichotomy: anarchy is the logical extreme of libertarianism. To achieve genuine liberty for most, sometimes somebody â which will usually but not always be the gummint â has to crack skulls or even stack bodies of a few.
Joel Cauvin, a Haitian employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross, was abducted Wednesday evening and found dead near his home the next day, the committee said Friday. The Geneva-based organization said it was "extremely concerned about the growing insecurity in Haiti."
But not concerned enough to call for some serious head cracking. They can always hire somebody to take his place, and the guys wrinkling their brows and looking Concerned⢠aren't the guys who're on site, taking their chances with today's equivalent of the Visigoths.
Cauvin's family had been negotiating a ransom with his captors when talks abruptly and inexplicably broke off, said Wolde Saugeron, an ICRC spokesman in Haiti.
That'd be when the thugs bumped him off...
U.N. peacekeepers said they freed a kidnapped woman in a raid Wednesday, and local Radio Metropole identified the victim as a worker for the Haitian Red Cross. "Until the people of Haiti can walk outside of their homes in peace, they cannot be expected to vote," said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who has called for a delay in Haiti's polls until security is restored. The U.S. House of Representatives refused to support her appeal this week.
This is one of the few occasions where I agree with Maxine, though we favor different approaches to the solution of the problem. Until the people of Haiti can walk outside of their homes in peace, they cannot be expected to do much of anything productive, not just voting. Going for groceries is dangerous, not to mention going to work. Delaying the elections as she envisions it would be an indefinite thing â sometime, perhaps 400 years from now, Haiti will be civilized enough to hold them.
Haiti needs a benevolent but ruthless dictatorship to maintain or in many cases introduce some level of services for the citizenry, while at the same time hunting down and either killing or jugging the gangsters who're the legacy of not only Father Aristide, but Papa Doc and Baby Doc and of their predecessors as well. It's the society that's corrupt, as is evidenced by the fact that Haitian emigres do perfectly well in the U.S.A. They even vote.
The problem with my approach is that particularly in Haiti, dictatorships, while usually ruthless, haven't ever, as far as I know, been benevolent. Luckily, not being in charge, I'm not required to come up with an approach that avoids the extremes of dictatorship and anarchy. The only real solution might be to remove all the Haitians to other countries and repopulate the country from scratch. That'd be an interesting, if impractical, experiment. I suspect that the new inhabitants would immediately lapse into the kind of brutal corruption that's always been Haiti's lot because it's actually something in the water.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
It's the Evian water that's at fault. The islands settled by Quakers are quite peaceful and trustworthy to the point you don't have to lock your doors, let alone fear going out the door.
#4
lol, Ship! That's why I love this site! So much insight and wisdom here (in addition to common sense, which the avg. human is sorely lacking it seems). I've said it before and I'll say it again (like the Marines old saying): I learn more about what's REALLY going on at Rantburg before 10 am than most people learn in a week of watching the MSM. Long live RB!
Posted by: BA ||
07/02/2005 15:43 Comments ||
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that his government maintained good relations with former President Clinton and told U.S. business leaders that he would do his best to improve ties with the Bush administration. Speaking to business representatives from the United States at a trade meeting in Caracas, Chavez said relations with Washington have been tense since Clinton left office more than four years ago.
With the current administration, there hasn't "been the smallest possibility of dialogue," said Chavez, one of Latin America's most outspoken critics of U.S. foreign policy in the region. Chavez said he nonetheless wanted to forge stronger ties between the countries. "You should know my dear North American friends, U.S. businessmen, and I say it with all the sincerity that can come from my soul, that we want to do everything possible to improve commercial, economic and political relations," said Chavez. "We are going to work so good times come."
Despite diplomatic differences, Chavez emphasized, the United States remains Venezuela's main oil buyer and top trade partner. Venezuela ships nearly 1.2 million barrels of crude to U.S. ports daily while many businesses in this South American nation import products made in the United States, including medicines, food and machinery.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Hugo is living in a communist dream world.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/02/2005 0:30 Comments ||
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#2
Just a suggestion Hugo, but shooting yourself in the head would be a fine way to get the ball rolling.
#7
With friends like Fidel, policies of income redistribution that mirror the destuction of the kulats (SP?) in early USSR, and efforts to recreate the communist insurgencies of the 50-70s, what this dipwad says should only be proof that evil can speak through the mouths of cretins, and democracy can fail when the people discover it's power to take (why eminent domain decision of our own supremes is so frightening).
Posted by: Just About Enough! ||
07/02/2005 12:10 Comments ||
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#8
I'd be glad to boost Venuzuela-U.S. ties.
Tie a U.S. rope around Chavez' Venuzuelan neck and boost via the nearest tree or lamppost.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/02/2005 19:27 Comments ||
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#9
Oh my goodness -- Chavez is trying to influence U.S. elections! For the Democratic Party!! What will his follow-up be, I wonder?
(Excuse me a moment while I calm down a little, laughing this hard can be dangerous to one's health.)
'Defector' reveals Beijing's plan to use espionage to achieve its objective of commercial dominance
A network of Chinese industrial spies has been established across Europe as the Communist government's intelligence agencies shift their resources and attention from traditional Cold War espionage towards new forms of subterfuge aimed at achieving global commercial dominance.
With the number of Chinese entering Europe about to increase as Beijing relaxes travel restrictions, Western intelligence agencies fear that the spying will be even more difficult to combat. Britain is likely to be one of the countries where significant infiltration is planned.
"There is a large Chinese intelligence operation in northern Europe spanning communications, space, defence, chemicals and heavy industries," said Claude Monique, a Brussels-based intelligence analyst.
"The Chinese agent has given details of hundreds of experts and their activities. As a result national inquiries have been launched, certainly by the German, French, Netherlands and Belgian agencies and, I believe, in Britain too."
A former British official, who runs a private consultancy specialising in fraud and risk management in Beijing, said that the Ministry of State Security systematically extracted the information it wanted from Chinese people travelling aboard, including tourists, businessmen and scientists.
"Any ethnic Chinese with relatives or business interests in China is vulnerable," he said. "There are a large number of people who live at or travel to key locations who are regularly debriefed or given orders to obtain various types of strategic information that Beijing finds is militarily or economically useful.
"Traditionally, the Chinese who went abroad since the late 1970s for trade or study purposes were in businesses controlled by the state. That apparatus of spying has grown over time as Chinese ambitions have risen."
Visa regulations easing restrictions on Chinese tourism have recently come into force in the UK, as well as continental Europe, and attempts to monitor travellers' activities and telephone calls are at risk of being overwhelmed. A spokesman for the security services said that Chinese spying already represented a significant intelligence challenge that mirrored the threat previously posed by Russian agents.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/02/2005 21:09 ||
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The Schröder era was drawing to a tortuous close yesterday after Germany's chancellor orchestrated his own defeat in parliament, setting the stage for early elections he has little hope of winning.
The historic vote of no-confidence marked the beginning of the end for the so-called Red-Green coalition, which has ruled the country for the last seven years. It opened the way for the rise to power of Angela Merkel, the leader of the conservative opposition, to become Germany's first female chancellor if, as expected, she triumphs at the polls in September.
In a reflection of the perversity of much of German politics, Gerhard Schröder was reduced to engineering his own drubbing, instructing his Social Democrats to abstain in the vote in the Bundestag. In a half-hour long speech before the vote, which often sounded like a swansong, Mr Schröder argued that he needed a new mandate in order to pursue his economic reforms. "If we are to continue with this agenda, legitimisation through new elections is needed," a lacklustre Mr Schröder, dressed in a black suit and watched from the public gallery by his wife, Doris, told parliament. "We need clarity."
Mrs Merkel, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, responded in fiery mood, saying Mr Schröder's move would "save Germany from months of inaction". She accused his government of "undoing everything that the Christian Democrats set in motion" under the 16-year reign of Helmut Kohl, of "plundering" the country, and of failing to communicate the need for reform to the electorate. "You have never managed to explain to the citizens the necessity of these reforms and that is what finally led to your government's defeat," she said.
In what was effectively an opening gambit in a campaign that will be brief but intense, Mrs Merkel quoted back at Mr Schröder his remark that his government would resign if it failed to reduce unemployment. In fact, it has risen considerably during his time in office. Germany is in the grip of economic lethargy and a collapse in national morale without parallel in decades.
Mr Schroder's reforms, known as Agenda 2010, have yet to bring a turnaround, leading to apathy and frustration among the voters. The chancellor has argued that holding elections a year ahead of schedule will help to end the deadlock.
But losing yesterday's confidence vote is only the first of several steps necessary before an election is certain to go ahead and a date can be set. Mr Schröder must now ask President Horst Köhler to accept yesterday's result and dissolve parliament, a decision that must be reached within the next 21 days and which could lead to an election, most probably on Sept 18. Mr Köhler must decide whether Mr Schröder's self-inflicted downfall is constitutionally legitimate.
His position is, however, unenviable. If he vetoes early elections, Germany will be plunged into even worse turmoil, with a government that no longer wants to be in power, a parliament its members want to dissolve and an electorate fed up with chronically inactive politicians.
#1
Wow - I've gotten rusty. Could this be moved to Page 3 and some of the (Where the hell did they come from?) excess blank lines removed? Sheesh. Things don't work the same anymore with embedded tables and such. My apologies.
#2
I'm no fan of Schroeder, but due credit. A fork in the road has been reached and he has engineered an early election for the voters to decide. Germany's great error in the 20th century was not to ally with the Brits. Perhaps they will rectify that error in the 21st century.
#3
No due credit.
A politician who realizes that he has failed hands in his resignation and does not make a sham of the Constitution.
What Schroeder did could very well lead the president to refuse new elections and we'd be facoing a year of agony.
#4
I predict that Germans, like Swedes, won't be able to break their addiction to socialism. Schöder may very well win, once he is free to run a vicious campaign based on anti-capitalism and anti-Americanism.
#6
Well, you'll have some interesting ex-pat communities to choose from, if you'd like to hang with German-Americans. The Germantowns in Pennsylvania and Texas are like, I have heard, visiting your grandparents. Signs in old script and very formal language. However, Germans who've arrived since 1900 tended to integrate quickly.
#7
I don't have much hope Merkel can win. I see the same old same old red/green cabal back in power and Germany headding down the tubes blaming everyone else for her plight. That after is the German way things go bad blame someone else. Last time is was the Jews, undermenschen and "back stabbers." This time it (is) will be the USA.
#8
TGA, let me get this straight, it was by setting his government up for a loss in the no confidence vote that allows for the "year of agony" or praying/playing for time....?
#9
Shipman, hard to say.
When the SPD lost the biggest German land Schroeder announced anticipated elections. I guess the idea was to keep the leftists quiet who were about to rebel and finish Schröder off AND try to catch the opposition unaware, make them blunder and grab another victory.
This plan clearly failed. The opposition quickly elected Merkel and the SPD now faces a new far left party made up of ex East German SED members and disgruntled far left ex SPD members, including former SPD party boss Lafontaine. They formed a far left union that, due to its popularist undertones, may attract the far right as well.
So it's possible that Schroeder still wants the elections to go down with flying colors (he seems to have enough) while parts of the SPD (including party boss Muentefering) have changed their minds about the early elections. Muentefering made the non confidence vote look like the sham it was. He knows that several members of Parliament are going to challenge the early elections at Germany's High Court.
Their success is not too unlikely given the poor show talent of the SPD. The Constitution does not allow for frivolous non confience votes in order to dissolve Parliament.
Muenteferings plan may be that Schroeder will resign if the High Court vetoes early elections, take Schroeder's job, promise a lot of things to please the electorate and hope that Merkel crumbles.
In a year a lot of things can happen. If we do have elections in September Merkel will win.
#10
What is a "frivolous" non-confidence vote? Seriously, will the court subpoena the various member who skipped the session to determine if they would have made the difference? I mean, it's obvious that the whole thing was rigged, but "obvious" doesn't apply when you are in front of a judge. At least in the US, it doesn't. Just ask OJ.
If the President accepts the vote, but part of the SPD takes it to the court, will they rule in time? Will the High Court postpone the elections so they have time to argue the case? Or will the elections go ahead and then the court say it doesn't count? (If the latter, they'd have a great future in Florida or Washington.)
This could make Bush vs. Gore look like a traffic court case.
Maybe the EU will simply take the country under its direct control. You need higher tax rates and more strenuous regulations, right?
The chancelor asks his party to abstain in the nonconfidence vote, claiming he cannot count on the leftists in his coalition.
30 minutes later the party boss challenges the opposition by saying: "We are all behind Schroeder".
One hour later half of the party abstains.
It can't get anymore frivolous than that. And only one member of Parliament, a Green (but he came from the DDR-opposition of the late 80s) called it the sham it was.
The President now has a problem. If he okays the deal and dissolves the Bundestag, the Constitutional Court could overrule him by saying that the dissolution of Parliament was unconstitutional because the non confidence vote was staged (everyone knows that it was but you don't want to be too obvious about it.)
That's not very funny for a President whose supreme task it is to "protect and uphoild the Constitution). So he might simply refuse the dissolution although 80% of Germans favor it and the President himself knows that it is in the best interest of the country.
#12
Geez, TGA - and people make fun of our elections. At least they're pretty straightforward, even to the Democrats voting the cemetaries.
I don't really understand the parliamentary system, but I sure don't like it. It's way to confusing. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/02/2005 19:24 Comments ||
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#13
TGA, join us in Cincinnati. It was settled by Bavarians after the 1848 debacle, and has the 2nd biggest Oktoberfest in the world... and the first branch of the Hofbrauhaus opened last year just across the river.
#14
To join in the invites, how about the Southwest. I was good enough for Werner von Braun. And we get German air units training out here yearly.
To get back to the legal issues, let's say the President turns a blind eye to the shenanigans and certifies the vote, thus setting the election for September. That means the Constitutional Court has 2 months to reverse him. Can they do it in that amount of time?
And if they do reverse him, can he then be impeached for not following his oath of office?
Angela Merkel used a clenched fist to underscore her points with the understated precision of a former scientist, saying Friday that Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government had "gambled away" voters' trust. Merkel has a strong chance to become Germany's first woman chancellor after Schroeder lost a vote of confidence in parliament in a deliberate effort to trigger early elections.
The 50-year-old Merkel, who grew up in East Germany and built a career in as a researcher in quantum chemistry before switching to politics after the fall of the Berlin Wall, stumbled once or twice in her address to parliament. But she drew ample applause from conservative supporters. "Mr. Chancellor, this will naturally be an election about the country's direction, an election with the question, Will the policies be carried on like before or will there be policies again move Germany forward?" she said.
Merkel's address Friday touched on themes that her Christian Democratic Union, along with their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, plan to campaign on — job creation, market freedoms and increased competition. In a nod to her former political sponsor, Merkel charged that Schroeder's government had "undone" everything accomplished by former Chancellor Helmut Kohl during his 1982-1998 government. "Never before has a government gambled away the trust of its people as this one," said Merkel.
Tending toward logic and careful explanation instead of fiery rhetoric, Merkel gesticulated with open hands and an occasional fist to hammer home her points. Merkel has promised to tackle Germany's 11.6 percent jobless rate by giving companies more flexibility in firing people and setting hours. She has advocated that the regulation-clogged economy be "faster, more flexible and better," while not dismantling the safety net. In foreign affairs, many analysts think she'll get along better with the Bush administration than Schroeder did, given her criticism of the chancellor's refusal to support the Iraq war under any circumstances, though she differs with Bush by opposing full European Union membership for Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Merkel has promised to tackle Germany's 11.6 percent jobless rate by giving companies more flexibility in firing people and setting hours. She has advocated that the regulation-clogged economy be "faster, more flexible and better," while not dismantling the safety net.
Ms. Merkel should be told told that tax cuts will accomplish much of what she is saying. Making Germany more efficient will force all comptetors to do the same in order to keep up.
Tax cuts are modern miracles.
Undo regs, sure; give business more flexibility okay, but tax cuts will accomplish much of what Germany so desperately needs.
#3
Lol, JFM - it does sound a bit bizarre, but indeed Georgia Tech, a fine engineering school, has such courses. It's more mathematics than test tubes, heh.
#4
Quantum mechanics is at the heart of modern chemistry. Far more important to chemistry than physics.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2005 12:59 Comments ||
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#5
I deal in discreet packets of love.
Posted by: Dr FeelGood ||
07/02/2005 15:13 Comments ||
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#6
The problem with tax cuts is that Germany isn't fully sovereign in that respect..it has to adhere to the criteria of Maastricht.
Tax cuts would boost the economy but they would, at least for some time, make the deficit soar. The US can do that much easier than Germany.
So actually we need a chancellor who is willing to ignore EU rules in order to save the economy. I wonder if she has the guts to do that.
Tony Blair will support her, but Chirac will give her hell.
OK, that may not be the downside after all.
#9
TGA, and he also got a boost from President Bush, being quoted in his speech on Tuesday night!
(of course, the other man Bush quoted was OBL, but nevermind.)
Go Angela Merkel!
#10
hope he doesn't TGA - best wishes and good luck for Ms. Merkel! I may sound like a kneejerk asshole when I call for bringing our troops home (what the hell, truth is, I am a kneejerk asshole!) I just want a different German-American relationship than I see now, and frankly, I like the US positions, so who to change? Buh-bye Schroeder. Will Mr. Defense Minister get the push too?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2005 19:01 Comments ||
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#11
Oh, but Frank, there's nothing kneejerk about it -- that's part of what we love so about you! ;-P
#12
Before I come off as too much of an asshole myself, I should add that in the circles I grew up in, "asshole" was a linguistic shortcut for, "Dammit, you confident asshole, you know what you're talking about and now I look stupid!"
#13
During my short 8 years of living in Germany, and loving almost every day of it, I did notice that very little is accomplished by the the government other than the typical political ranting one might hear from lets say in Haiti. More is done to promote the economy and quality of life by the average German on the strasse than any of their questionable political leaders. I decided not to use fuhrers to not offend my pals there. The volk am die strassen clean the walks & street without government mandates and drink as much bier as they can afford to keep the economy running along, and eat at every opportunity. These 3 small examples are far outnumbered by other efforts there. One thing many Americans miss out on is dialouge with the regular guy & gal there on how they view their government when they are not criticizing ours... whick is more fun for them to take their minds off their own problems. Angela Merkel will probably climb that political ladder and end end up like all the rest... hamstrung from the time she gets sworn in by the lefties and neo-conservs. But... vielen gluck to her anyways.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair took over the European Union's six-month rotating presidency Friday and said he saw little chance of rescuing the EU constitution after its rejection last month by French and Dutch voters. Blair said he intended to fight for a new vision of the EU, one that equips Europeans to compete in a global economy and modernizes expensive French-style social and worker protections. Blair said that he will host an EU summit to assess the direction and speed of European integration.
The purpose of the autumn summit was to review how Europe's treasured social model is economically hobbling the continent and to see if the 25 leaders can rekindle public enthusiasm about the EU's future. But no specific date for the summit was set. Blair said he will ask the leaders to revisit their goal to make Europe the world's most dynamic economy by 2010, an undertaking launched in 2000 but one that has missed many targets already. He said the French and Dutch charter rejection reflected an ill-defined but deep-seated sense among the bloc's population that the EU is out of touch with public opinion and not acting on sensitive issues such as immigration, crime and security.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Tony Blair is such a wanker.
He wants the EU to compete in the global economy without sacrificing its "social model," which is their Socialist welfare state and this, my friends, can't be done.
He and the EU must choose, but I betcha they won't.
Also, they're beginning to sound like the UN: they have conferences to form committee to do findings and then suggest proposals to be presented at more conferences...Rinse, repeat.
End result: Nothing will be done except to drive up the methane emissions around Brussels.
by Scott Ott (Scrappleface)
(2005-07-02) -- Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-MA, today criticized President George Bush's as-yet-unnamed replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as a "brutal, Bible-thumping, right-wing ideologue who hates minorities, women and cocker spaniels."
"He or she is clearly outside the mainstream of American values," said Sen. Kennedy. "President Bush has again ignored the Senate's 'advice and consent' role, forcing Democrats to filibuster this outrageous nominee."
The Massachusetts Senator said his aides have already discovered "reams of memos" showing that the man or woman Mr. Bush will appoint has "a history of abusing subordinates, dodging military service, hiring undocumented workers, spanking his or her children and rolling back the clock on human rights to the days when the Pharaohs ruled Egypt with an iron fist."
The Senator's office issued a news release to the media documenting the allegations against the potential high court judge, with a convenient blank line allowing reporters to fill in the nominee's name as soon as that information is leaked.
#1
The only thing that keeps me from laughing is that lately Mr. Ott's "parodies" have been turning into reality. I don't know wether to cringe, or to cry when this happens. Its disturbing.
Posted by: N guard ||
07/02/2005 16:51 Comments ||
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#2
Let's see Teddy-BOY...Ranked 5th (pun intended) of the Kennedy brothers...more confirmed kills than most of the combat troops in Iraq...alcoholic...liar...coward...philander.
Right up there with Mr. KKK in the Demo galaxy of stars.
The rape case and plight of the 28-year-old Indian Muslim woman, Imrana, is slowly turning into a political drama with both Muslims and non-Muslims pitching in their worth. While the fatwa issued by Ulemas of the Deoband and the Muslim Law Board has triggered a hornet's nest, the Hindu fundamentalists BJP turned to their pet peeve by calling for reforms in the personal laws of Islam and to bring these in consonance with the constitutional guarantees.
Despite my dislike of the BJP, I agree with them. If laws don't apply to all citizens, then each individual citizen can make up his own laws â like they do in Haiti. Customs have to stop at the edge of the community, otherwise they impinge on the surrounding communities, as this case does...
Imrana was raped by her father-in-law, who is now in judicial custody, and the issue of Imrana's marriage and Muslim personal law has all come under sharp focus, in the predominantly Hindu country. There are 180 million Muslims in India and they were shell-shocked to see on the television screen the victim of rape begging and screaming to be let alone. Fully veiled and in black burqa she was shown on television pleading, "Please leave me alone, please, I'm tired, don't trouble me, don't highlight my case, and to look at this case from the point of view of a woman. I shall abide by the decision of the Shariah court, but I would like that the accused be punished severally. I will do whatever the Shariah asks me to do. If they tell me to leave my husband, then I will. I will follow the fatwa."
That's a properly submissive attitude for a Muslim woman to have, I suppose. But a more pertinent question, and the one that's being asked, I think, is what the hell right do the Ulemas of the Deoband and the Muslim Law Board have to tell her how to run her burka'd life? And if they have that right, why don't they have the right to tell the Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and what have you neighbors how to run theirs? As we've noticed here, it's a right they claim, even if not always out loud.
Meanwhile, newspapers too were having a field day by propounding on the issue. In an editorial, Indian Express said that the Ulemas of the Deoband and the Muslim Law Board have made it quite apparent that even in the 21st century, the Ulemas who act under the imprimatur of religion do not understand one simple principle: That a woman is a person in her own right and that Imrana was a victim of a heinous double crime.
I suppose the process makes sense if a woman's merely a possession. If you're a genuine person, though, you're not going to want to have your entire life disposed of my a bunch of turbans.
The editorial further added that this is not an isolated case of a [single] Muslim woman, but recently we had seen the case of Gudiya, another Muslim woman, whom the self appointed custodians of religion took it upon themselves to determine whether she would have to live with her first husband, who had been assumed dead but eventually returned from Pakistan, or whether she should continue to live with her current husband.
To me, with my simple agnostic mind, that's a question for the civil courts. Did a de facto divorce take place when he deserted her?
Darul Uloom, of Deoband, which issued the controversial fatwa, stood firm before the Shariah court and had in an edict stated that Imrana's marriage stands nullified in light of the alleged rape and she should separate from her husband. Her father-in-law Ali Muhammed raped Imrana Noor Elahi, mother of five children and resident of Charthawal town of Muzaffarnagar district in western state of Uttar Pradesh allegedly on June 4. The Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has ruled that a woman raped by her father-in-law could not be allowed to live with her husband any longer and issuing a fatwa (decree) that her staying with her husband Noor Elahi has become untenable as per the Islamic law after the rape.
That's based on the assumption that raping someone gives you a claim on them. Because Pop doinked her, even though it was involuntary on her part, she became his property â which is what a proper Muslim wife is. Therefore she became Hubby's Mom, which'd make any further relations incestuous.
The All India Muslim Law Board (AIMPLB) also concurred with the Darul Uloom of Deoband fatwa, while the lone woman member of the board Naseem Iqtedar Ali Khan too approved the edict and said that as per the Qur'an, Imrana's conjugal relationship with her husband stands dissolved, since she had been raped by the latter's blood relative. Had she been raped by anyone other than a blood relative, she could have stayed with her husband, but here, a sacred relationship has been violated, the consequences of which has to be borne by Imrana and her husband Noor Elahi and pointed out that the responsibility of the couple's five children would have to be shouldered by Elahi as long as required.
Why? If she became his Mom, the kids must be Pop's, not his.
"India is not a Islamic country were a rapist is stoned to death. Here it is the law of the land which prevails in cases of granting relief to a rape victim and punishing the offender" Naseem Khan stated. The state chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav too expressed his support to the fatwa.
Quite correct. India's not a Moose limb country. It has a perfectly workable set of civil laws. Adding a separate path of contradictory laws subverts that system. If laws don't apply to everybody, there's no logical reason they should apply to anybody. And we won't even go into the fact that in Muslim countries it's usually the rapee that ends up getting stoned, rather than the rapist.
But the BJP took it as an opportunity to continue its Muslim bashing. It said that the fatwa showed how the Muslims were crumbling all over the world. Joining in the opposition to the fatwa was the All India Shia Personal Law Board, which stated that if a man rapes his daughter-in-law the victim cannot become the mother of the husband.
Okay. That's three separate paths we've got going. Anybody else want to supervise?
The National Commission for Women (NCW) that was hearing the plight of Imrana, said that it was also consulting legal experts on how to tackle the clash between criminal justice and Islamic jurisprudence in Imrana's case.
Easy enough. Don't recognize Islamic jurisprudence in any form.
Mufti Habib ur Rahman of Darul Uloom, who issued the fatwa, however stated that they had been hustled into doing so after queries were raised on Imrana's marital status. The mufti said that he told the parties that raised the queries that the issue ought to be decided by a Shariah court and added that after repeated queries supported by evidence, he issued the fatwa.
"Yeah! It ain't our fault! We wuz rushed into it! That's why it don't make no sense!"
Muslim public opinion too, is questioning the right of the religious seminary to adjudicate on a purely criminal offense.
You mean even the turban in the street gets it? Wowzers.
"The Darul Uloom should have kept quiet on this issue as India is not a Islamic country. In fact, the Darul Uloom have no right to issue a fatwa on criminal offense" said Naeem Hamid a member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board. What is the logic behind giving a decision in which one party is penalized when it had no power to punish the culprit?" asked Hamid. Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan Barelvi of the parallel All India Muslim Law Board (jaded) said that a controversy has been created by some vested interests to get the Shariah laws changed, but what is more reprehensible is that some of our brethren have fallen prey to the designs of these vested interests, he added.
Ahah! I knew it! It's a conspiracy! Prob'ly the Jews or the Americans are behind it all...
The BJP and other Hindu fundamentalist organizations organized several protest rallies throughout the country demanding justice to Imrana and demanding the federal government to abolish the Muslim personal law and bring the Muslims under the umbrella of the Uniform Civil Code. The Communist Party of India (CPI-M) leader Brinda Karat described Imrana's plight as a "shocking example of how the contractors of religion can bulldoze the constitutional rights of a citizen.
Cheeze. I agree with commies. I must be wrong someplace in my reasoning... Nope. Can't be. The alternative would be to agree with Islamists. Talk about a rock and a hard place...
Renowned Islamic scholar and Arab News columnist Adil Salahi reacting to the Imrana case and the fatwa said "Whoever gave this fatwa is ignorant. He tells us that marriage is ivalidated by rape, or adultery, or incest. There are only two ways to end a marriage: Divorce including 'khula', and death. But these people are putting their narrow view ahead of the Qur'an that states clearly that a son's wife is unlawful for her father in law, even after she is divorced or becomes a widow. Now they are saying that rape invalidates her marriage and makes her a mother of her husband. This is ignorance in the extreme. Noted film and drama writer director Mujeeb Khan criticized the edict of the Darul Uloom, and said that a ignorant fatwa has put the Muslims in the hall of shame the world over.
And Lord knows that wasn't a long trip...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2005 00:00 ||
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You know this is F*cked up when the communists make more sense than anyone else in the room. If this is really true muslim law, than they are beyond help.
#2
To me, with my simple agnostic mind, that's a question for the civil courts. Did a de facto divorce take place when he deserted her?
He did not desert her and there was no legal divorce.
He was an Indian soldier, recalled to duty ten days after the marriage and engaged in mine clearance along the LOC when he was captured by Pakistani forces in 1999.
He was assumed to have deserted by the Indian Army .
Her family arranged a new marriage in 2003.
According to Sharia, a woman must wait 4 years and then request a decree from the local qazi, however the family did not ask for nullification of the marriage.
She had a child with her new husband. But in 2004 Pakistan released the old husband. After the Army debriefed and cleared him of all charges, he went back to his village. His family had gone through hell, having been harassed by the villagers and local authorities because of his 'desertion' from the army. He wanted his life (and wife) back and appealed to the muslim clerics.
He was now a hero and the clerics ruled the second marriage was illegal. Her family and the clerics pressured her to return with the first husband. For good measure they declared the child illegitimate. The second husband retured home to find his wife and child gone.
As you said, laws should apply to all citizens. The Indian constitution itself demands that a common civil code by created. This was never done because the muslims opposed it.
The Indian Supreme Court overruled a muslim personal law in 1985. This was the Shah Bano case.
She was a 73 year old muslim woman who had been triple talaqed by her husband in 1978 and thrown out of the house.
Because Indian law entitled her to maintenance while sharia law does not (a woman is entitled only to mehr, a payment from her husband at time of marriage) she appealed to the courts and eventually won at the Supreme Court.
Many muslims protested the decision and the Rajiv Gandhi Congress Gov't rushed a law through the Indian parliament overruling the Supreme Court (and thus depriving an old, probably illiterate, woman with no means of support of her rightful due).
Posted by: john ||
07/02/2005 10:34 Comments ||
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#3
The 150 year old Deoband seminary which issued the fatwa was formed as a reaction to the loss of muslim power power in the Indian subcontinent (the defeat of the Mughal empire by the British). It is not suprising that it is so backward. It strives to preserve what they see as an imperiled muslim identity from the numerically superior hindus.
The defeat of the Ottoman empire at the end of WW1 and the decline of the Raj prompted another round of backward thinking. The writings of Imam Madudi, who influenced the Egytian muslim brotherhood (Al Qaeda #2 Zawahiri is a member) are instructive.
They call for muslims seperating themselves from the unclean kaffirs. Muslims should dress diffently for example. Muslim dress (like the hijab/headscarf) is political not religious. The intent is the creation of a muslim political entity to resist the influence of outsiders (which would otherwise destroy islam) and enable the recreation of the capliphate.
The Pakistan movement was an extreme form of this thinking, ironically opposed by the Deobandis and the Jamaat Islami (Hind) which saw India as muslim territory to be reconquered.
Today they continue to oppose all attempts at integration , holding onto their seperate laws and rights (such as the haj subsidy from the Indian Gov't which actually violates Sharia since haj is supposed to be undertaken from a person's own funds).
Posted by: john ||
07/02/2005 11:02 Comments ||
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#4
"Ooohhhh we're being bashed!"
Fucking muslim ignoranti should have their schools knocked to the ground just for their lack of learning and advancement. That means they're just socio-religious meeting places, kinda like Gotti's Ravenite Club
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2005 13:19 Comments ||
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MULTAN: Two servants of a feudal lord threw acid on a 14-year-old girl and her 12-year-old younger brother after the youngsters rejected their sexual advances. Police refused to register a case against the men initially.
Fauzia and Kashif were washing their clothes near a tube well owned by a local feudal, when two of his servants, Muhammad Aslam and Muhammad Nawaz, approached them and made suggestive remarks. The children berated the men, who retaliated by throwing acid on them. The children, along with their counsel Munir Ahmed Ghauri, went to Civil Judge and Local Magistrate Shaukat Javed's court and asked for justice. Judge Javed told Vehari district health officer to give immediate medical assistance to the victims and ordered the police to register a case. Ghauri told the court that the police had refused to register their complaint and the medical officer had refused to issue them a medico-legal certificate without the police document.
This sort of story isn't associated with religion, not even the most depraved variants of Islam. It's associated with culture, and it's a culture that's vile to its core. There are pedophiles everywhere â God knows there are enough of them in this country. One of them buried that little girl alive in Florida. But the tossing of acid when one doesn't get one's sexual way seems to be peculiarly South Asian. The fact that the cops are in thrall to the local feudal lord is disgusting. Even in the most corrupt countries, they'll at least go through the motions. But not in Pakland.
Guess it wouldn't be proper to throw the acid on the pedophiles, would it.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2005 00:00 ||
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Paedophiles exist in all cultures but only in some of them it is considered acceptable with the nexample being set up by the Prophet himself.
LAHORE: Unidentified hackers attacked the websites of Daily Times, Megaeast and WorldCall group on Thursday morning, completely crippling the portal with a message "This is the end beautiful friend". The hackers also left security code ic3d r0s3.
"Iced rose" in hackerwrite...
A US-based company hosts the websites. Daily Times technical support staff said such kind of hacking was called web defacing. "We are unable to control our server in the US due to the Internet blackout in Pakistan, but we restored our website at the local level," they added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2005 00:00 ||
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The famous Dancing Girl of Moenjodaro, one of the two most powerful symbols of the Moenjodaro civilisation that flourished in the Indus Valley 5,000 years ago, is not in Pakistan, as it should be, but in India. Some time before independence, the exquisitely crafted statuette was sent on loan to the Delhi museum by the Lahore museum, its rightful home. When independence came in August 1947, the priceless piece was still in Delhi and nearly 58 years later, remains there.
I suspect she's safer there. Since she's buck nekkid, some Islamist would be sure to consider it his holy duty to smash her to pieces.
Noted art historian Faqir Syed Aijazuddin did not say what efforts, if any, Pakistan had made to retrieve one of its cultural icons. The other famous Moenjodaro symbol is the figure of the Priest King, which is in Pakistan, not India.
Since he has his clothes on, he's probably safe, until somebody notices he's an infidel and takes a claw hammer to him.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2005 00:00 ||
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Pakiland gets a Holy Man and India gets a nakeed chick, I thought both would be happy.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/02/2005 4:13 Comments ||
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Yousaf Masih, an illiterate 60-year old sweeper who is charged with blasphemy and desecration of the Quran in Naushera, was only disposing waste on his landladyâs orders, according to evidence gathered by the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP). Yousaf had no way of knowing if some Quranic verses had found their way into the garbage, says the commission. âA child spotted Yousaf Masih burning verses from the Quran. He was in fact just burning garbage.
That's an accurate description, I'd say...
"The boy raised an alarm, and the swift and ruthless reaction by extremists of the locality led to the ransacking of a Hindu temple on the same night by a angry mob,â said the NCJPâs Rawalpindi correspondent. This was the same temple that had been damaged following the destruction of Babari Mosque in India. It had been reconstructed in 1993.
Same howling mob of extremists, too, I'd guess...
Yousaf was employed by Major Farida, a nurse in the Pakistan Army. He was obeying his mistressâ orders by burning some household waste papers, when the child saw him, according to the NCJP. âSoon after, mosque amplifiers were used to announce the desecration. Seeing the hot Muslim reaction, local Christians and Hindus fled to the local police station, seeking protection, but the police failed to respond to their pleas.â
So the nasty little brat ran to the local holy man, who whipped up the rubes...
Yousaf was booked under the Pakistan Penal Code. His family escaped from the locality to another city. Maj Farida has also left. Local police officials told Daily Times that a case had also been registered against the Muslim extremists for setting the temple on fire.
Not that anything'll come of it...
They said that Ghulam Hussain, a local superintendent, was investigating the matter. The Naushera SP and district police officer were not available for comment. The local police refused to provide any more details, saying instead, âThe matter has been taken up by high ups.â On June 29, the NWFP government suspended two senior police officers, Sohail Khalid, deputy superintendent of police, and Bahadar Khan, station house officer, and ordered an inquiry to be submitted within 10 days. The NCJP correspondent told Daily Times that the situation was returning to normal and military and paramilitary troops had been called in to protect the area. Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops Conference and the All Pakistan Minorities Alliances (APMA) in separate statements issued on Thursday condemned the destruction of a place of worship over the allegation of Quran desecration. They demanded that the case against Yousaf be withdrawn and reiterated their demand to repeal the blasphemy laws. Both the minorities, Hindus and Christians, live together in Naushera (NWFP). About 70 minority families inhabit the targeted Lamba Vera area.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2005 00:00 ||
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Move over Harry Potter. In Amman's downtown bazaars, the bestselling book these days is Saddam Hussein's bootlegged novel "Get out of here, curse you!" Banned by Jordan on the grounds the 186-page tale of an Arab tribesman who defeats foreign invaders could harm relations between Jordan and Iraq, Saddam's latest novel has become so popular booksellers say they can't keep up with demand. "We had copies but they sold out after the book was banned," the owner of a kiosk in a busy Amman street told Reuters. "We are waiting for the book to be published again. Even if it is banned I will ask for copies outside Jordan," said the vendor, who like most of those interviewed asked for his name not to be published.
"I had it before the government banned it but after the ban more people came to look for it," said another vendor, whose shop stands in a narrow alley where old men dressed in white robes fingered beads and drank tea. "It's a very popular book here."
Saddam, who faces war crimes charges, is a popular figure in some quarters in Jordan, where -- like the ousted dictator -- the large majority of people are Sunni Muslims. There is also a large exile Iraqi community living here. Portraits of Saddam smiling like a benevolent father figure are sold in some shops in gritty downtown Amman, where most residents are of Palestinian descent, next to pictures of Jordan's King Abdullah, a close U.S. ally.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A kidnapped international Red Cross worker was found shot to death, the organization said Friday, expressing its concerns about escalating violence that threatens elections to replace ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "Elections are the bridge to democracy," trumpets a slogan to persuade frightened Haitians to vote. 
Venezuelan President 
The Schröder era was drawing to a tortuous close yesterday after Germany's chancellor orchestrated his own defeat in parliament, setting the stage for early elections he has little hope of winning.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair took over the European Union's six-month rotating presidency Friday and said he saw little chance of rescuing the EU constitution after its rejection last month by French and Dutch voters. Blair said he intended to fight for a new vision of the EU, one that equips Europeans to compete in a global economy and modernizes expensive French-style social and worker protections. Blair said that he will host an EU summit to assess the direction and speed of European integration.
The rape case and plight of the 28-year-old Indian Muslim woman, Imrana, is slowly turning into a political drama with both Muslims and non-Muslims pitching in their worth. While the fatwa issued by Ulemas of the Deoband and the Muslim Law Board has triggered a hornet's nest, the Hindu fundamentalists BJP turned to their pet peeve by calling for reforms in the personal laws of Islam and to bring these in consonance with the constitutional guarantees.
LAHORE: Unidentified hackers attacked the websites of Daily Times, Megaeast and WorldCall group on Thursday morning, completely crippling the portal with a message "This is the end beautiful friend". The hackers also left security code ic3d r0s3. 
The famous Dancing Girl of Moenjodaro, one of the two most powerful symbols of the Moenjodaro civilisation that flourished in the Indus Valley 5,000 years ago, is not in Pakistan, as it should be, but in India. Some time before independence, the exquisitely crafted statuette was sent on loan to the Delhi museum by the Lahore museum, its rightful home. When independence came in August 1947, the priceless piece was still in Delhi and nearly 58 years later, remains there. 
Yousaf Masih, an illiterate 60-year old sweeper who is charged with blasphemy and desecration of the Quran in Naushera, was only disposing waste on his landladyâs orders, according to evidence gathered by the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP). Yousaf had no way of knowing if some Quranic verses had found their way into the garbage, says the commission. âA child spotted Yousaf Masih burning verses from the Quran. He was in fact just burning garbage. 
