NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters) - New York transit workers on Thursday called off a three-day subway and bus strike that caused havoc in America's most populous city at the height of the holiday season and which may have cost the economy $1 billion.
"They'll go back right away," Transport Workers Union Local 100 leader Roger Toussaint told reporters after the union's executive board voted overwhelmingly to end the strike after mediation by a state labor board.
A TWU spokesman said workers would soon be opening 26 subway routes and many local and express bus routes but it would take 10 to 18 hours to resume full operations. Commuters still faced a chaotic return home on Thursday evening.
City officials have estimated the economic hit from the strike at $1 billion over the three days. It came in the week before Christmas and Hanukkah when retailers, restaurants and other service industries would normally be at their busiest.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg welcomed the resolution and said he expected some bus lines to be running later on Thursday, and most subways back to full service on Friday. "There's still plenty of time for people to shop," he added.
Reaction on the streets was unanimous. "I'm glad that it's over. I didn't think I'd be able to leave the city to go home to Virginia for Christmas with all the hassles," said fashion stylist Christina Turner.
The strike was called off after talks at which the union and transit authorities agreed to resume bargaining on key issues such as pensions and healthcare, mediators said.
The union's executive board voted 36 to 5 with two abstentions to resume work immediately.
Some 34,000 workers in the Transport Workers Union Local 100 walked off the job on Tuesday after contract talks broke down over pay, health care and pensions, stranding some 7 million passengers who use subways and buses each day.
#1
Funny how the threat of imprisonment for conducting an illegal strike made the union council scumbags suddenly decide to have all the members go back to work. Of course, for a lot of the small businesses in New York, it is probably already too late to recoup the losses.
The General Presidency for Youth Welfare has ordered a sports club in the eastern province to cancel a theatrical performance after supervisors from the Committee to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice become aware that the play included a scene in which a male actor plays the role of a woman.
Oh, horrors!
A club spokesman told Asharq al Awsat the General Presidency for Youth Welfare notified the club that a spectator [complained that] a woman was featured in the show. Al Safa clarified that a man was playing the role of a women and indicated the show had been licensed by the Ministry of Information as part of its extracurricular activities. For its part, the Committee to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice in al Qatif confirmed it had acted to halt the play after it noted a number of religious violations had taken place, including the appearance of a male actor in a female role. Its agents had also noted billboard advertisements for the play showed a man dressed as a woman.
"No, no! Can't do it! The conflicting lusts are too great for the Islamic mind to bear!... I must... I must... shoot off!... My gun. I must shoot off my gun. That's it..."
Fuad al Majid, al Qatif prosecutor general, said the play violated Islam and pointed out that the Permanent Committee for Scientific Research and the Issuing of Fatwas (religious edicts) had issued a fatwa where it prohibited theatrical plays where men would imitate women.
... and another one where women would imitate women...
The comedy, which was performed for the first time earlier this month, was written by Zaki al Marhoun. Al Safa has gained a reputation for its theatrical productions in the last few years, after the former deputy Chairman and playwright, the late Jamal Ibrahim, put forward several scripts, which were adapted by Said al Qoreish.
They haven't even made it up to Elizabethan times. I'd feel sorry for them, if I had any sympathy for them at all. The ghosts of Shakespeare and Jonson are actually cackling...
Yet strangely, they can reconcile hiding under a burqa when arriving at a checkpoint manned by US Marines ...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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#5
I just happened upon a story in Variety that was about a play starring a "Lovable Child Molester".
That would probably be fine, they should think about going that way with it next time. In fact, I'm sure it would be fine over there.
Police in Colombia say they have found a half-built submarine in a warehouse in a suburb of the capital Bogota 2,250 metres above sea level. Police chief General Luis Ernesto Gilibert said Russian documents were found alongside the partially-completed vessel.
He said the 30 metre (100ft) vessel would have been capable of carrying huge quantities of cocaine or heroin. He speculated that, once completed, the submarine would have been disassembled and taken by lorry to to Colombiaâs Pacific or Caribbean coast.
So they're going to assemble it in Bogota, and then disassemble it and take it to the coast ... o-o-o-kay.
When police raided the warehouse in the suburb of Facatativa they found the building equipped with closed-circuit cameras but devoid of people.
Instead there was the startling sight of a sophisticated submarine under construction. âIt was between 30% and 40% complete and had its engine room ready,â General Gilibert said. âThe technology is advanced and the workmanship of high quality.â
#13
In other news ... Columbian authorities also discovered a nearly-finished 250-mile-long waterpark-style flume that wound its way from the capital Bogota to Buenaventura on the Pacific coast. There is no indication the unfinished submarine and the unfinished water flume are related.
On the scene to comment was former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, who said, "I like to call that the Buena-Ventura Highway!!" ... and then went about adding another braid to his beard.
#23
www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20051221054030899
Actually, THAT joke is on you, but you're too thick to understand why.
Posted by: Canadian Navy ||
12/22/2005 16:53 Comments ||
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#24
Darrell, I think CN meant that the folks building the sub need a new translator. As in, the Russian manual specified a 2250-meter max depth and the druglords interpreted it to mean "build it at an elevation of 2250 meters".
#25
BH - I think you are correct. Thats why the warehouse is half built in an empty warehouse.
You start building sub all fired up on your nose blow.... Man everything is just going so fast and so fine.... Then the boss man who doesn't do blow cause he's not stupid comes by and says: "how are you planning on getting this sub into the sea? MORON!"
#29
Okay, 3dc, yesterday you posted a four month old article ("Taliban who killed Seals hunted down and Killed!"). Today it's a five year old article. What's the deal???
#30
Look at the date on the article. The article is dated Dec 2005. So, after you yelled I did the google search. Photos the same so it looks like I was fooled along with several other sites.
The four month old one was because nobody ever mentioned that they had finished those Taliban guys off. It deserved notice.
If it really upsets you Darrell I am sorry but that posting an older story causes you trauma. It should not cause you trauma. For future reference... how new must a story be before it is too stale for you?
#31
Sorry, but old news two days in a row looked like you were messing with us. Anonymoose posted the 40-dead-Taliban story on 2005-08-22 10:22. THAT was fresh enough for me.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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"Foreign energy firms have invested $3.5 billion in Bolivia since 1996.
But after the passage of the new hydrocarbons law in May, and amid increasing calls for an outright nationalisation of the energy industry in Bolivia, they have mostly frozen any new investments for this year."
ROFL. Al Jizz "reportage". Like a whole 'nuther reality. Try "forever", JizzBoy.
#2
The Bolivarian Revolution continues. Next up Cuban staffed missions for the poor and thirsty.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/22/2005 7:48 Comments ||
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#3
Bolivia to split into two in five, four, three, two, one...
The real question is what happens to the jungle/Coke producing section. Can a nation pull itself out of the third world using just drug money? Or will they find themselves rule by a handful of drug barons.
#7
Self proclaimed "America's worst enemy" isn't he? I've got a solution to self proclaimed enemies of the US, and it does involve gasoline. Perhaps not in the way he envisions.
Japan's foreign minister has said China is becoming a "considerable threat" because of its increased military spending and nuclear weapons, in comments that have sparked a fresh row between the neighbors. China is "a neighboring country with one billion people and nuclear bombs whose military spending has been growing by two digits every year for 17 consecutive years," Foreign Minister Taro Aso told reporters.
"And the content of that is extremely unclear. If I say what this means, I recognize that it is becoming a considerable threat," he said.
Aso, an outspoken hawk appointed in late October, made the comment when asked about the recent remark by Seiji Maehara, the conservative head of the main opposition Democratic Party, that China is a "realistic threat". "As Mr Maehara put it, it is true that (China) is stirring up a threat and worries," he said.
China reacted angrily, saying its economic might was benefiting Japan. "As a foreign minister, to so irresponsibly incite such groundless rhetoric about a China threat, what is the purpose?" foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular briefing. "China's development has made commonly acknowledged contributions towards the world's peace and stability, bringing East Asian countries, including Japan, great development opportunities," he said in Beijing.
Aso's remarks came just after the release of a new Chinese government paper reiterating that Beijing intends to become a peaceful world power.
#1
Pretty soon it will be necessary to take the leash off Japan. Look for another movie, "Return of the Yamato!". So stock up on popocorn and soda. This can only get more interresting.
#5
Japan is just concerned that China is going to pull Japan's economic power base. The real military threat will come in 20 years when the "One child per family" policy matures. As it stands right now I believe the birth rates are at over 70 percent male. When they mature we will have a class of Chinese that will have to expand just for a family base. The young men, with no chance of a family, will join the military and the expansion views will take hold. If I was Cambodia, Thailand, or the Philippines I would be extremely worried.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/22/2005 13:17 Comments ||
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#6
Yes, taking the leash off Japan gaurantees an Arms Race. The only bad thing is that we are down wind of them when they start kicking sand on each other.
The thought that China "intends to become a peaceful world power" is probably true. I am sure it is on their long term timeline after the "Global Domination" milestone is passed. I think they need a second front opened on them that is both militarily and economically strong. I sense that a new Rising Sun is not in the Chinese equation and would pose a serious distraction that may give a fledgling Chinese middle class the time it needs to develop and rise as a political force. And, I think their is still enough fire in the belly of Japan to get them off their asses to take on the challenge.
#7
49pan: The real military threat will come in 20 years when the "One child per family" policy matures. As it stands right now I believe the birth rates are at over 70 percent male. When they mature we will have a class of Chinese that will have to expand just for a family base. The young men, with no chance of a family, will join the military and the expansion views will take hold.
Chinese males (and males of other nations and ethnicities) have done without for since the beginning of time. The ready availability of marriageable women in the modern era is an aberration. The reasons are as follows - (1) prior to modern medicine, large numbers of women used to die in childbirth, (2) monogamy in China is Western import, meaning that wealthy men used to have large numbers of wives and (3) getting married in China has always involved the payment of a bride-price to bride's family - putting marriage out of the reach of men in the poorest stratum of society. The traditional recourse for men who can't afford to marry is to resort to the services of professionals once every so often.
Ethnic Chinese have a complex about dark-skinned ethnicities - if they move south, they'll take the land and expel the population. My point is that China has historical claims from centuries (and millenia) ago - this, and not finding mates for their women, is why they might send their armies south.
#8
Article: Japan's foreign minister has said China is becoming a "considerable threat" because of its increased military spending and nuclear weapons, in comments that have sparked a fresh row between the neighbors.
This is truly strange. A foreign minister's job is to make nice with the nation's potential enemies. It is the defense agency head's job to talk up foreign threats.
#9
Anyone know if he has a reputation as a loose cannon?
Does this statement have the backing of other cabinet members?
Posted by: john ||
12/22/2005 16:53 Comments ||
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#10
ZF- Thanks for the history lesson. The one thing I learned while working and living in Asia is that western logic does not always apply. Again I learn this lesson. Thanks
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/22/2005 19:14 Comments ||
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#11
49pan: The one thing I learned while working and living in Asia is that western logic does not always apply.
Logic works much the same anywhere in the world. I think the word you're looking for is values. Non-Westerners have different values and assumptions, and therefore arrive at different conclusions.
An American will see two women holding hands in China, and assume they're lesbians. But holding hands is a long-held custom in China. An American movie reviewer will see a gangster movie like "The Killer", where a lot of male bonding occurs, and assume that the protagonists are gay. But this type of male bonding is a staple of Chinese culture and literature. The epitome of this type of relationship is canonized in the 3rd century historical work - Records of the Three Kingdoms - where Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei become sworn brothers. But an American movie reviewer will miss all this because he lacks ... knowledge of Chinese customs. In American movies, Arab Muslims see everyday American women who are assertive and promiscuous. Since the only women who act this way in their home countries are prostitutes, they assume that most American women are prostitutes. The fact is that every culture sees outsiders through the prism of its own experiences and culture.
Map at link. Looks like a blog, but not one frequented.
East European countries regard the Russian-German agreement to build a gas pipeline on the Baltic seabed with misgivings. Though it is far cheaper to build an overland pipeline through Lithuania and Poland, the North European Gas Pipeline Company (NEGP) will directly link Russia and Germany, bypassing transit states. The 1,200 km long seabed pipeline from Vyborg to Greifswald will allow Moscow and Berlin to cut off gas supplies to the countries lying between Germany and Russia if they should ever wish to. This has prompted some to compare the NEGP gas deal to the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In addition to the geopolitical objections there are serious environmental objections to building a pipeline on the seabed.
Last week the Estonian website Syndicate of Common Sense published an article which suggested an easy way to thwart the NEGP. Estonia and Finland only need to reassert their rights to the Baltic seabed. According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea every country has the right to extend its seaborder to 12 nautical miles (22 km) from their shore or outermost island. The Gulf of Finland between Estonia and Finland is so narrow that the countries cannot utilise their maximum 12 mile area without colliding. In this case the border runs right through the middle.
In 1994, however, Estonia and Finland signed a bilateral treaty [pdf] in which they both gave up 3 miles from that middle line, so as to create a 6 mile wide international seaway in the Gulf of Finland: âIn the Gulf of Finland, the outer limit of the territorial sea shall at no place be closer to the midline than 3 nautical miles.â This seaway leads to the Russian waters near the city of St Petersburg. That is where the NEGP will start, running on the seabed in the international zone between the waters of Finland and Estonia.
Under the terms of the 1994 treaty both Tallinn and Helsinki can unilaterally revoke the agreement with 12 monthsâ notice. If one of the countries decides to do so, this would leave the international seaway only 3 miles wide, beginning from the midline on the side of the country that has not revoked the treaty. If the two parties reassert their full rights, the seabed border would again be on the midline between the two countries.
Hence all that is needed to block the construction of the seabed pipeline between Russia and Germany is a diplomatic decision from Tallinn and Helsinki. This would make Estonia and Finland the only sovereign powers over the seabed in the Gulf of Finland. As a result Russia would not be able to construct anything on the seabed without permission or without complying with specific terms.
#1
Perhaps they will let them build it, first, lol...
Personally, I would find it both funny and sweet justice for the high-handed & dirty-dealing of Russia and Germany, in matters like this and, hell, everything else for the last century or two regards these states. Heh, heh, melike.
Teresa Heinz Kerry says she is "outraged" that President Bush didn't react more forcefully to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent recommendation that Israel be "wiped off the map," saying that the way to deal with Iranian threats is by issuing "the strongest possible condemnations."
Re-adopting her husband's last name for a column in Thursday's Jewish Forward, Heinz Kerry complained:
"The Bush administration - which so often answers challenges with confrontational language - took this occasion to whisper. With the exception of America's ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, who denounced the remarks as "pernicious and unacceptable," the Bush administration explained those comments as if they had been uttered by a crazy relative - and then returned to its talking points on Iran's nuclear weapons program."
Heinz Kerry singled out Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for criticism, complaining she had offered no condemnation of her own. {Actually, Rice told ABC Radio's Sean Hannity that Ahmadinejad's comments were "completely outrageous" before adding: "Nobody thinks that the president of any civilized country should talk this way.")
But for Heinz Kerry, Rice's tough words were apparently not good enough. She's demanding, well - if not action - at least some more tough words.
"The only way to prevent the virus from surviving and spreading," the former Mrs. Heinz advises, "is to attack, killing it with the strongest possible condemnations before it has a chance to mutate and spread."
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/22/2005 18:39 ||
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#1
Ho hum. She would have been equally outraged if he had condemned them.
Go back to maked Catsup. Oops Ketchup. Jackass biatch.
#3
Too easy, too hard, too friendly, too mean, too sober, too gay, too crooked, too straight, too religious, too drunk, too Texican, too pro Soodi, too stupid, too Yalie. Poor bugger can't win for losing.
#5
On the topic of "mutants," wonner how Teresa's Viet hero, hanging cha hubby is doing these days. Ain't heard much outta him. Not complaining mind ya.
#6
IIRC, there was something in the book The Hunt for Red October, a russian makes the comment that he is scared by the lack of saber rattling, because drawing a saber makes no noise.
Posted by: bruce ||
12/22/2005 21:24 Comments ||
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#7
then this tool will complain we struck too hard...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2005 22:51 Comments ||
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There's no discussion of what the religion of the parties involved might be, though I suspect that at least those harrassed are non-Muslim. What's just as interesting is the source â Arab News, fresh from the land of the religious police. Getting in a dig, are they? Or are they trying to figure what the fuss is about?
Outrage and protests mounted in India yesterday after TV channels showed police officers repeatedly slapping, punching and pulling the hair of young women on a date in a public park in a north Indian city. Indian media reported one couple was so humiliated by the police action in front of TV crews they have not returned home. âWe are waiting, but my son has not returned. He had gone to drop his girlfriend home,â said Malti Sharma, mother of 20-year old Amit. Amit was one of the victims of Mondayâs police action. âThe girl was scared to go home. I donât know where they have gone.â
âIs falling in love wrong? Who gave the police the right to beat and hit people and misbehave in such a manner,â a woman in Meerut city in Uttar Pradesh state told Aaj Tak television news. Since Tuesday, shocked TV viewers in India have been watching images of female officers pummelling and abusing crying young women in Meerut in what the media is calling âmoral policingâ.
They've been living with their Muslim neighbors for too long. It's starting to catch on...
TV footage also showed male policemen with sticks surrounding the scared women and taking them to women officers who beat them. Several of their male companions were beaten also. The police operation, termed âoperation Romeoâ, in a popular park in Meerut on Monday was touted by police as a move to prevent sexual harassment of women. It turned out to be something very different.
So it would seem. Who the hell let the Taliban in?
In Meerut, students shouting âDown with police dictatorshipâ have staged demonstrations and burned effigies of police officers. The outcry, including from women groups, has forced the police to suspend two women officers and probe the incident.
Good idea. And have somebody beat them up, too, the hairy old bitches...
The National Commission for Women said in a statement yesterday that it had asked for a report from the state government within a week about the âpolice harassment of young people meeting in public parks.â Ranjan Bajpai, an official of the Womenâs Commission said that âno civilized society should allow such type of cultural policing.â
Even most uncivilized societies don't...
Members of the upper house of Indiaâs Parliament condemned the police action, calling it âsick policing.â âWe had been getting complaints from people that young people indulge in indecent behavior, but some policemen exceeded their limits,â Meerut police superintendent Rajiv Ranjan Verma told AFP.
The idea of the local swains banging the local wenches in public parks doesn't do much for me, but I don't go rooting through the bushes to find them. As long as they keep it private it's no skin off my fore...
One witness said police even picked on a married couple. âThey started beating a married couple... They were not even ready to listen to what the couple wanted to say. They were just slapping them,â a witness told NDTV television.
I'da gone from there to my lawyer's office. My bruises would have formed into dollar signs...
In parliament MPs demanded action against the police, who were accompanied by TV crews and journalists during the attack.
Showing off, were they?
The incident is a âblot on civilized society,â said ruling Congress party lawmaker Mohsina Kidwai. âIf the police were cracking down on men out to sexually harass women, then why were the girls beaten up?â asked Sushma Swaraj of the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
My guess is because women aren't as big as men...
One of Indiaâs most conservative states, Uttar Pradesh is also one of the most crime-ridden, known for gangs indulging in murder, extortion and kidnapping. People in Meerut are amazed that police have the time to go after dating couples.
Apparently they're easier to find than murderers, extortionists, and kidnappers...
Some defended the right of young people to date in parks. âNobody should be allowed to bother them as long as they are not indulging in obscene acts,â local lawmaker S.P. Agarwal said.
I wholeheartedly agree. And even if they are, don't go poking around in the bushes...
Young couples in cities often meet in parks as dating before marriage is frowned upon by many Indian parents but they are harassed by police who threaten to report them or ask for bribes.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
LOL again, Fred! Yer on a roll - don't stop, lol.
#2
âNobody should be allowed to bother them as long as they are not indulging in obscene acts,â
Ah, but who gets to decide WHAT is an obscene act?
I hear tell that there are some who believe that allowing women out of the house is obscene. But, I'm sure that's just a malicious rumour, no?
#3
An indication of how much the outside world is changing traditional Indian culture. You don't get this type of "moral policing" unless folk feel their world is under threat. It is all futile however, the youngsters love their MTV and they, not middle aged sexually frustrated policewomen, will be running India.
Posted by: john ||
12/22/2005 15:31 Comments ||
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The Arab Lawyers Union, a Cairo-based organization which includes twenty-four national bar associations of Arab countries, has decided to hold a moot court hearing against âwar criminals who harmed Arabs and Muslims,â the Arab media reported Tuesday.
Comprising 400,000 lawyers from 21 Arab countries, the Union drafted a list of âwar criminalsâ topped by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In the âindictment,â Prime Minister Sharon is accused of crimes against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, while Blair and Bush are held accountable for âwar crimesâ in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The mock trial will be held at the Unionâs headquarters in Cairo in February with organizers expecting to lure personalities like Nelson Mandela, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad, and former Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella to act as judges.
The Unionâs head Abed Al-Azim Al-Mughrabi said London Mayor Ken Livingstone, British MP George Galloway and the Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Ekrama Sabri will also be approached to act as juries.
The general prosecutor in the symbolic trial is expected to be former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who is one of the lawyers defending Saddam Hussein. The accused will receive indictment letters through their countryâs embassy in Cairo.
Marluddin Jalil, a Sharia judge who has ordered the punishment of women for not wearing headscarves, was uncompromising: âThe tsunami was because of the sins of the people of Aceh.â
This is Muslim thought at its finest: sharp, incisive, hysterical...
Thundering into a microphone at a gathering of wives, he made clear where he felt the fault lay: âThe Holy Koran says that if women are good, then a country is good.â
Right. And if women are cute, then a country is cute. And if women are curvaceous, then a country is curvaceous. And if women are drunk, then a country is drunk. And if women are post-menopausal, then a country is post-meopausal. You just can't argue with logic like that.
A year after the disaster which many see as a divine punishment, emboldened Islamic hardliners are doing their best to eradicate sin â and women are their prime targets.
It hasn't occurred to them, of course, that they got hit with the tsunami because they're Muslims. If they'd been Unitarians or Lutherans they'd have been spared.
With reconstruction slow, irrational fears of a second tsunami high, and nearly 500,000 still homeless along 500 miles of coastline, the stern message falls on fertile ground.
"And if women are simpletons, then the nation is a simpleton!"
A Sharia police force modelled on Saudi moral enforcers enthusiastically seeks out female wrong doers for public humiliation.
"Oh, Rodney! Humiliate me!"
The Wilayatul Hisbah, which loosely translates as âControl Teamâ, has arrested women, lopped off their hair, and paraded them in tears through the streets while broadcasting their sins over a megaphone. More than 100 gamblers and drinkers â men and women â have been caned in public and some clerics are calling for thievesâ hands to be amputated.
Any women calling for clerics' lips to be amputated? It will come, someday. That'll be when we're sure we're winning the war.
The Islamic law introduced without popular enthusiasm in 2002 has been implemented rigorously since the tsunami, especially in towns such as Lhokseumawe, where Fatimah Syam, of Indonesian Women for Legal Justice, knows of 20 women who have fallen foul of it. She said: âThey seek out women without headscarves or unmarried girls meeting boys in private and parade them through the streets in an open car. Iâve seen the police laughing and boasting, and the girls in tears. The Sharia police say the tsunami happened because women ignored religion. We never heard of this parading before the tsunami.â
I like to think — and I certainly hope I'm right — that throughout the Wonderful World of Islam there are millions of men and women, presently cowering in fear of the holy men, but also inwardly writhing with shame at having to be subjected to this sort of degradation. Intellectually, they're capable of understanding that the concepts of Honor and Dignity™ have been stood on their heads and turned inside out. They lack only the knowledge of their own numbers to give them the courage to act.
One day the Islamic bubble with burst. The Arab and Muslim world will resound to the sound of a massive collective forehead whack as all eyes turn from Mecca and millions of voices cry out in unison: "What were we thinking?" Hands will reach for torches, for pitchforks. Tar will bubble merrily and chickens and ducks will squawk as they give up their feathers for a higher purpose. The sun will set on Salafism, and it will rise to find the remaining trees in the Muslim world decorated by holy men, dangling by the neck from their own turbans.
The poor, powerless and female have borne the brunt of the moral enforcersâ righteousness.
As they always do. Bullies and tyrants prey on the weak, not on the strong...
Mrs Syam claimed the wife of an official caught without a headscarf on a scooter was let off last month and a prostitute who was paraded through the town won the sympathy of passers-by because of the hypocrisy of her persecutors: the womanâs client was allowed quietly to disappear.
... to return to his mosque, perform his ablutions, and lead the Faithful™ in prayer, no doubt...
The religious police have not always had it their own way. In one incident on the island of Sabang, attempts to humiliate a bareheaded girl backfired when angry villagers turned on them. By the time the civil police arrived to rescue the enforcers they were surrounded by an angry mob flicking lighted cigarettes at them.
So, my vision isn't groundless. I like that...
But such setbacks and public unease have not dampened the zeal of Dr Jalil, a small, neat man with a trimmed moustache whose particular concerns are headscarves, gambling, alcohol, and girls meeting boys. âSin starts small and gets bigger,â he said. His next target is a displaced personsâ camp outside Lhokseumawe where he has heard of young men and women freely mixing. âAnother tsunami is possible,â he said. âThe Holy Koran says that if humans donât listen to Allah they will be punished.â
And Allen only speaks to humans through the voices of his holy men. Human can't think for themselves, can't control their own actions, must be regulated, watched and controlled at every turn. Otherwise the oceans will rise, the sun will cease to shine, crops will fail, and cattle will cease to give milk. The gods... errr... sorry: Allah must periodically be propitiated by human blood, but on day-to-day occasions he will settle for the sacrifice of dignity, a dish he finds tasty...
He was not sure whether there was more or less sin since the disaster although he believes that the Acehnese are more God-fearing now. In the tent camps and temporary wooden barracks where desperate survivors endure grim conditions, Dr Jalilâs views are often well received. There are 67,000 survivors still living in tents and a further 75,000 are in the slum barracks, which are taking on a semipermanent air. Only half of those who lost their jobs in the disaster are back at work and drug abuse among the young is growing.
As long as they're not meeting chicks while they're shooting up, that's okay...
Although Aceh province is now a giant building site, the sheer scale of destruction has slowed work. A third of government servants died and 1,000 miles of roads were wiped out, making the logistics of recovery extremely difficult. The Government says it has built 12,000 of the 80,000 permanent homes it aims for and that housing will be its top priority next year. But some aid workers think there could still be families under canvas in three yearsâ time.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 12:34 ||
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#1
Well, they blames the wymyns for most everything else - at least everything not reserved for Jooos and the Great Satan - so why not a rock slide and the resulting tsunami?
#2
"Marluddin Jalil, a Sharia judge who has ordered the punishment of women for not wearing headscarves, was uncompromising: âThe tsunami was because of the sins of the people of Aceh.â
Meanwhile, back in the real world, Marluddin Jalil probably spends his vacation time in Thailand, hobnobbing with many, ahem, Middle Eastern hombres.
#4
Let me get this straight. THe largest Islamic nation is blasted by Allah at its most fundamentalist corner. Hindus are and Christians and moderates are generally spared but this is because of the womens wicked ways? Nice rationalization there.
Allah also hit Kashmir and the NorthWestern section of Pakistan. I think Allah is targetting wicked areas alright but I don't think you guys are really getting the picture.
When the f&*k are they not? These petty tyrants with their eggshell egos blame women for the very worst of male shortcomings. We should send Lorena Bobbitt to these countries for a lecture tour on how to get some respect at home.
In the tent camps and temporary wooden barracks where desperate survivors endure grim conditions, Dr Jalilâs views are often well received.
Well, at least by the wifebeaters, I'm sure.
Note to Rantburgers: I tried to telephone Ms. Bobbitt and she cut me off!
#6
Hear, hear, RJS. I thought the same thing when that quake hit kashmir. They just don't get it and they automatically cast blame elsewhere and/or call for the Faithful(tm) to become more faithful!
Posted by: BA ||
12/22/2005 13:35 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Time to teach women that cutlery has other purposes than getting dinner ready for your oppresser. Dr. Jalil goes first.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2005 14:30 Comments ||
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#8
Hands will reach for torches, for pitchforks. Tar will bubble merrily and chickens and ducks will squawk as they give up their feathers for a higher purpose.
The sun will set on Salafism, and it will rise to find the remaining trees in the Muslim world decorated by holy men, dangling by the neck from their own turbans.
Delicious Imagery!
But you forgot the circling buzzards, vultures, and crows looking for the best place to start to eat...
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.
Outrage and protests mounted in India yesterday after TV channels showed police officers repeatedly slapping, punching and pulling the hair of young women on a date in a public park in a north Indian city. Indian media reported one couple was so humiliated by the police action in front of TV crews they have not returned home. âWe are waiting, but my son has not returned. He had gone to drop his girlfriend home,â said Malti Sharma, mother of 20-year old Amit. Amit was one of the victims of Mondayâs police action. âThe girl was scared to go home. I donât know where they have gone.â
Marluddin Jalil, a Sharia judge who has ordered the punishment of women for not wearing headscarves, was uncompromising: âThe tsunami was because of the sins of the people of Aceh.â 
