KleosToday: A Journal of History and World Affairs

Machiavelli In Moscow

2012-02-12T12:15:00.001-05:00

For more than a year, the tyrannical Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad has conducted a merciless campaign of intimidation, torture and armed assaults against dissenters of his government - of whom are in the clear majority. Assad's henchmen have killed 6,000 civilians and 400 children over the past few months, and his security forces have not only attacked the staff of Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) but they have also fired upon the wounded that the courageous and unselfish doctors have sought to aid.
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Assad is a criminal in an expensive Western suit, and his army consists of the same thugs who propelled and kept his father, Hafez al-Assad (1930-2000), in power for nearly thirty years (1971-2000). As a minority, the Alawite sect, which largely constitutes Assad's ruling circle, has never been shy about using force to preserve their power. In 1982, Hafez al-Assad brutally suppressed a Sunni Muslim uprising in the town of Hama. His forces slaughtered 17,000-40,000 people and destroyed much of the area by using scorched-earth tactics. As such, it became one of the worst atrocities in modern Middle Eastern history. Like father, like son.
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In watching or reading the news, we commonly shake our collective heads and exclaim, "How can a human being do such a thing to another human being?" We react from a deep sense of personal moral outrage - similar to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon who described Assad's war against his own citizens as one of "appalling brutality." The use of the word "appalling" connotes a severe violation of basic human decency. Yet, many leaders around the world have avoided using such ethically-charged words. Why? It is because they are operating off a far different paradigm of international relations than the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea and other nations. Instead of ethical norms being at the center of their approach to domestic and world affairs, ethics have been divorced from their mode of statecraft. For these states, maintaining and expanding their power at any cost is the ethic.
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In the publication of The Prince in 1532, Florentine statesman and political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) articulated the modern notions of how a prince (a successful ruler) must be willing to go to any length to maintain power. While tyrants such as Assad (Syria), Ali Khamenei (Iran), Jose Eduardo dos Santos (Angola) and members of the Politburo in China may not have read The Prince, the maxims from Machiavelli's treatise have resonated among dictators and oppressive regimes for nearly five hundred years. In short, they may not be aware of Machiavelli's book, but they certainly know his ideas.
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The following three selections from The Prince will illustrate the unfortunate relevance of Machiavelli's political thought in 2012.
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"A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything most necessarily will come to grief among so many who are not good. Therefore, it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case."
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For Machiavelli, his concept of international relations was predicated on the belief that people - especially people in power - were usually avaricious, corrupted or corruptible and ultimately desired to pursue their self-interest at the expense of others. While true for much of history, Machiavelli's dark view of human nature was mistaken. The rise of democracy and its attendant ethics of tolerance, human rights and diplomacy has demonstrated that a state need not suspend its ethics and fight fire with fire to survive. Democracies, allied with each other, can create and maintain peace and promote the ideas of universal justice (i.e. massacring dissenters to preserve power is wrong at any time and in any place in history) without violating standards of common decency. To stay in power, dictators and tyrants of all stripes have never ceased to justify their crimes by claiming to be under siege by "terrorists" or "gangs." These terms, which have been used by Assad, were employed by the late Muammar Qaddafi of Libya.
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"A Prince, therefore, must not mind incurring the charge of cruelty for the purpose of keeping his subjects united and faithful...it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting."
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For Machiavelli, a wise prince understands that instilling fear into his people - whether by making threats or by taking violent measures (or both) - is the basis for keeping a nation loyal to his rule. The current regimes in Iran, North Korea, China, Angola and Syria have practically mastered the art of state intimidation among their subjected peoples. However, fear has a breaking point. When people become conscious of how the state has degraded their lives and realize that they have nothing left to lose - that death would be more honorable than living one more day in fealty to a corrupt regime, they revolt regardless of the firepower aimed against them. In 2009-10, the Iranian people nearly overthrew their government of misogynist thugs and religious pretenders. Last year, people all across the Middle East and North Africa refused to be cowed by fear any longer. Hosni Mubarak is gone, and the people of Egypt now have a chance to reshape their lives by organizing against bands of elitist self-interest, patriarchy and religious zealotry.
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"But it is necessary to be able to disguise this character well, and to be a great feigner and dissembler... men are so simple and so ready to obey present necessities, that one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived."
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According to Machiavelli, most people will believe anything that comes out of the mouth of 'authorities.' In the sixteenth century, that may have very well been true. As a large majority of Europeans consisted of illiterate or semi-literate peasants, the idea that the King was God's appointed representative on earth went unquestioned until the age of the French Revolution. All governments bend the truth from time to time to protect their interests, but bending the truth is not the same as a lie. In a word, there are lies and then there are lies - lies that condone murder, and lies that condone the ruthless oppression of women, minorities and people who stand for democracy.
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Machiavelli In Moscow
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On 4 February 2012, the thin-veil of legitimacy was suddenly lifted off the Putin-Medvedev regime in Moscow. In a 13-2 vote in the UN Security Council, Russia's ambassador was instructed to vote with China against a resolution that called for an arms embargo on Syria and for Assad to resign. As a "No" vote from any one of the five permanent Security Council members (China, Russia, France, UK and USA) automatically vetoes a resolution, the resolution put forward by the Arab League - not the US or UK - to prevent Assad from continuing his murderous campaign was defeated.
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As the Chinese government has long ruled by fear and force (Tiananmen Square in 1989, the ongoing suppression of Tibetan sovereignty by arms etc.) and has a history of using its Security Council vote to protect despotic regimes from sanction for the sake of preserving its lucrative business ties with various thug-leaders worldwide (i.e. China vetoed UN resolutions condemning Sudan's massacre of the people of Darfur to protect its oil supply and investments in Khartoum), Beijing's vote was hardly surprising. The Chinese regime is an exemplar of Machiavellian statecraft. The end (preserving power) always justifies the means (fear, force and propaganda).
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The Putin-Medvedev regime had always stopped short of outwardly embracing Machiavelli until their vote on the UN resolution last week. Perhaps the truth could simply no longer be hidden.
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In perfect Machiavellian form, Prime Minister Putin attempted to defend Russia's vote by publicly stating, "We cannot act like an elephant in a china shop. People should be allowed to decide their future themselves." Considering that members of Putin's party and government rigged Russia's parliamentary elections in December to deliver a favorable outcome to pro-Putin candidates, most Russians were likely aghast at his hypocrisy. It must be remembered, however, that Putin is not a hypocrite. As a Machiavellian, Putin has divorced ethics from his approach to domestic governance and international relations. If anything, he is simply living up to his Machiavellian ethic of doing whatever is necessary to preserve and maximize his power and the power of the state. Few people believe his lies. Most people realize his democratic rhetoric is empty, and it is used only to conceal his agenda - power, power for himself and power for his state.
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Who stood to lose most in the passage of the 4 February UN resolution against Syria? If the UN resolution had passed and an arms embargo had been put into place, Russian arms dealers, who have profited to the tune of $6 billion in supplying arms to Assad, would have potentially lost one of their best clients. For the Ministry of Defense, losing Tartus, a key naval base on the Mediterranean, would hinder its designs to influence the region and project its power.
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In response to a question on how the Russian government could continue to maintain relations with Assad and supply him with weapons and ammunition, Anatoly Antonov, the Deputy Defense Minister, replied, "We must fulfill our obligations, and this is what we are doing." Under a Machiavellian regime, it is Antonov's obligation to help Assad massacre his own people - if it translates into more power for the Russian state. When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised Assad in Damascus on Tuesday (7 February) for his attempts to resolve the domestic conflict peacefully - at the very moment Assad's security forces were slaughtering men, women and children in the town of Homs, he was also following the Machiavellian ethic - power not morality. The end (power) always justifies the means.
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Machiavelli is alive and well in Moscow. If a critic charged Putin and his henchmen with being "morally bankrupt," that charge would be entirely accurate. Morals do not figure into the equation for Machiavellians. At home, they may believe in God and teach their children the difference between right and wrong. In the quest for domestic and international power, however, those ideas simply do not apply. In the coming days or weeks, Russia might reverse course and agree to work with the UN to restrain Assad. If so, it will not be because Putin and his inner circle have come down with a sudden case of viral morality. Rather, any Russian change in policy will come from a cold calculation of sheer state-interest and the preservation of the Putin regime.
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Unless the Russian people can successfully oust Putin and his Machiavellian coterie in the upcoming elections, it is quite possible that Russia will once again drift back into the historical darkness of autocracy. As freedom of the press and the right to vote have both been circumscribed by Putin's regime, 4 March, the day of the elections, may be the last chance for Russians to save their state from joining China and Iran in the top-tier of Machiavellian regimes. If allowed to vote in free and fair elections, the Russian people would unhesitatingly vote for a government that reflected their values of tolerance, human rights, fairness, freedom of speech and unfettered democracy.
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As the world becomes more educated and interconnected, Machiavellians will be able to dupe fewer people, and they will have fewer places to hide. Hopefully, the twenty-first century will be the last century of these dehumanized princes.
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(Image: A portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli)
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Key Sources/Further Reading
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1. Alexander Boot, "Syria Bloodshed: Russia Wants To Give War A Chance" The Daily Mail (UK) (6 February 2012) See link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2097162/Syria-bloodshed-Russia-wants-war-chance.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
2. Joel Brinkley, "Syria, Russia, China - A Troika of Oppression" The San Francisco Chronicle (12 February 2012) See link:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/10/INO91N44KN.DTL
3. "Syrian Opposition Commemorates The Hama Massacre" The Telegraph (UK) (12 February 2012) See link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9056350/Syria-opposition-commemorates-Hama-massacre.html
4. Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince eds. Peter Bondanella and Mark Musa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998 - originally published, 1532)
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J Roquen

Wanted: An Ashcan School Of Politics

2012-02-05T12:15:00.000-05:00

When Jacob Riis (1849-1914) exposed the squalid conditions of New York's immigrant neighborhoods in How The Other Half Lives (1890), he set off a sea-change in American culture and politics. Indeed, the industrial revolution had profoundly altered the socio-economic landscape. Rather than being a country of independent yeoman farmers, America was rapidly turning into a transmogrified version of itself - a nation of production centers containing wealthy elites, small middle classes and large working underclasses. In much of New York, toil, tenements and tuberculosis were the order of the day. There was also the dispossessed. They slept in alleyways, begged for spare change and died - young and broken-hearted.
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As more and more people were being ground down from working 12-14 hours a day, six days a week (including children - who worked a bit less), an enormous chasm came to exist between the grim realities of daily life for the masses and the world of art. Compared to the deplorable conditions of the average American worker, a significant number of American artists, who had taken their inspiration and technique from the French Impressionists, were turning out scenes wholly divorced from life as it was actually being lived by the majority. In Eleanor Holding A Shell (1902), American Impressionist artist Frank W. Benson (1862-1951) rendered a stunningly beautiful image of an angelic young girl holding a sea shell amid in what appears to be a perfect state of nature. Eleanor's clothes, which are off-white and slightly grey, contrast well with her lily-white skin. She is a perfect reflection of the Anglo-Saxon upper class - white, wealthy and inside a life of leisure.
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Robert Henri (1865-1929, Henri is pronounced hen-rye), a talented artist who honed his skills at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, had another view of the role of art. Along with several other up-and-coming Philadelphia-based artists, which included William Glackens (1870-1938) and John French Sloan (1871-1951), Henri became part of an art coterie called The Eight. Inspired by Riis and perhaps Stephen Crane, a young novelist who starkly depicted the mean streets of New York's ethnic neighborhoods in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), The Eight were determined to produce art reflective of the middle and lower classes - or what is known in popular, progressive and democratic terms as the people. This group of artists, who had witnessed the wretched lives of the non-Anglo immigrants in New York first-hand, formed the Ashcan School of Art. The name Ashcan was perfect. Rather than lofty-sounding, Ashcan connoted realism, and it attempted paint a far broader, collective picture of the nation.
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Over the next four decades, The Eight challenged elitist culture and produced some of the finest works of art in the era. In Snow In New York (1902 - pictured above), Henri did not render a scene of pristine white flakes overspreading a natural setting akin to the Garden of Eden. Instead, his New York street snow ranges in color from white, to dingy grey and black. It has been polluted by carriage traffic and the grease and grime of an industrial city - quite a contrast to the snow scenes of French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926).
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Ten years later, two significant Ashcan School works, McSorley's Bar and Italo-American Celebration, Washington Square by John French Sloan and William Glackens respectively, were completed. For much of the Anglo-Saxon elite, Italians were repugnant due to their Catholicism. As for the Irish, they were doubly despised by the Protestant upper class. They were not only Catholic but also considered to be vulgar consumers of alcohol - the very type that would visit McSorley's Bar. By celebrating immigrant culture in their works, Sloan and Glackens were making a powerful statement against the narrow-minded prejudices of the upper classes.
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In cartoons published for The Masses, a radical paper published by Max Eastman (1883-1969) in New York City, Sloan notably depicted African-Americans no differently than other characters. This was no small gesture of tolerance and good will. In 'liberal' New York, racism was rampant, and African-Americans were often maliciously stereotyped and caricatured. Many businesses practiced informal segregation despite state laws, and legislation prohibiting interracial marriage gained significant support among New York legislators in 1913. Fortunately, that bill was shelved.
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Hence, the Ashcan School combated prejudice by depicting their ideal of a wholly inclusive society. This was progress as progress ought to be defined.
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Wanted: An Ashcan School of Politics
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Elites have no place in the twenty-first century. By definition, they are intolerant and divisive. A culture of freedom, democracy and fairness is not only created by redesigning political structures but also by recasting culture along the lines of tolerance, diversity and inclusion. Randolph Bourne (1886-1918), a native of New Jersey who belonged to the same group of young intellectual critics of elitist culture, neatly captured the goal of his generation - and of all generations across time and space - in his essay "Trans-national America" (1916) saying, "All our idealisms must be those of future social goals in which all can participate, the good life of personality lived in the environment of the Beloved Community."
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Last year, the world began challenging elites from Sana'a (Yemen) to San Francisco in the spirit of the Ashcan School. While progress has been made, there is still much painting to be done in our unrelenting quest to create a world of harmonious, beloved communities.
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(Image: Robert Henri, Snow In New York (1902). To view the works of art discussed above, please click onto kleostimes.tumblr.com to the right and check postings for 5 February)
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Key Source
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Henry F. May, The End of American Innocence: A Study of the First Years of Our Own Time, 1912-1917 (1959)
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J Roquen

Who Runs Nigeria?

2012-02-01T07:50:00.003-05:00

Among many Nigerian youth, there was a popular expression a few years back and one still uttered today, "If you can survive Nigeria, you can survive anywhere." In the April 2011 election of Goodluck Jonathan (b. 1957), Nigerians, who gave him an incredible mandate with more than 77% of the vote, thought they had found their 'Obama' - an educated, articulate and compassionate leader capable of restructuring the entire system. When Jonathan cut the government fuel subsidy on 1 January 2012 over the objections of 80% of the population, it was a well-meaning yet completely misguided attempt to bring order to a nation run largely (but not completely) by an absence of the rule of law. In order to understand the mindset of the government in repealing the fuel subsidy - a lifeline to most Nigerians who make $2 of less per day, the question "Who runs Nigeria?" needs to be answered.
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There are essentially three kinds of developed states in the world: 1) nations that control their economies to a large extent for the benefit of their people (Sweden, Saudi Arabia etc.), 2) nations that control about half of their economies and allow the other half to take a market-driven course (Canada, Japan) and 3) nations that control a limited part of their economy and allow markets to drive most of their economic life (United States). In the case of developing Nigeria, its leaders are probably aiming to shape the economy along the lines of Canada and Japan, but a domestic and international contest over the most traded commodity in the world - oil - has been both the principal source of wealth and the principle source of misery to Nigerians for decades.
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Money for Nothing, And Gas for Free (almost)
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1960 was the biggest year for Africa in the twentieth century. Seventeen African nations threw off the yoke of colonialism and hoped for a brighter future. Nigeria was one of those newly independent countries.
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Are you ready for a staggering statistic? Brace yourself.
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Over the last half century, Nigeria has earned approximately $400 billion in oil revenue. Of that $400 billion, more than $380 billion has been either squandered or pocketed by members of the government.
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In comparison, the amount of money Nigeria receives from international aid in one form or another amounts to one-tenth of its oil revenue.
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Rather than building schools, designing a dynamic infrastructure suited to enhance business, improving health care and handing out university scholarships to promising high school students, nearly all the revenue earned from oil has gone into the bank accounts of corrupt politicians and unscrupulous businessmen. A former governor of Rivers State, where Jonathan received his doctorate in zoology at the University of Port Harcourt, was reported to have siphoned off $1 billion in oil revenue alone.
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For many years, members of Jonathan's own party, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), hired gangs to attain their crass economic and political objectives in the Delta region and paid off others to rig elections. At the same time, multinational oil companies, particularly Royal Dutch Shell, have despoiled the environment and used heavy-handed tactics to maintain their lucrative extraction industry. In southern Nigeria during the early 1990s, human rights organizations and Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995) brought lawsuits against Shell alleging that the company had erected a quasi-police state around its oil facilities - and used torture and arbitrary arrest to prevent the indigenous Ogoni people from exercising their rights to the land and its resources. Under a storm of worldwide criticism, Saro-Wiwa - not the oil-bribed criminals - was hanged by Nigeria's then military government. He was only 54 years-old.
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Over the last decade, the oil companies have made a greater effort to weed out abusive practices among their personnel on the ground, but corruption still abounds. Two years ago, Shell was slapped with a $30 million fine for using a third party to bribe customs officials. Unfortunately, that is symptomatic of much of the oil-politics business in Nigeria.
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As the corrupt Nigerian oil-economy still largely controls Nigerian politics and politicians, Goodluck Jonathan knows quite well that neither he nor his government runs Nigeria. That is why they took the brazen action of trying to eliminate the oil subsidy. Although a source of political contamination due to its corrupt administration, the oil subsidy is also the one benefit from oil that allows nearly all Nigerians to remain economically afloat. How could Jonathan have been and apparently still be blind to how much the Nigerian people rely on the subsidy?
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One Step Up, Two Steps Back
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After an effective national strike protesting the removal of the fuel subsidy, Jonathan and his government entered into negotiations with the major unions to end the work stoppage. Many media outlets reported that the government had "backed down" or "yielded" to the demands of the nation. Yet, that assessment seems to gloss over the larger significance of the outcome.
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The fuel subsidy has only been partly reinstated. Prior to 1 January, Nigerians paid 65 naira per liter for petrol. After the subsidy was scrapped, the price of one liter of gasoline shot up to 141 naira - more than double the subsidized price. In the crisis negotiations between the government and the unions, the unions agreed to a fixed price of 97 naira per liter and ended the strike. Notably, government officials have indicated that the restoration of the fuel subsidy is temporary.
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Rather than the government "backing down" or "yielding," it is the unions who have ultimately backed down and yielded to government brinksmanship. Much of the subsidy has been eliminated, and the government intends to phase out the rest in the future.
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If a Nigerian worker makes one or two dollars a day, how can he or she afford to fill up a twelve gallon tank at the full market price? As many Nigerians are reliant on water transportation (boats), the same will apply. Businesses, of course, have already passed on increased transportation costs by hiking the price of their goods. The cost of food, clothing, medicine and a host of other essential items have skyrocketed 49% since end of the fuel subsidy.
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The Road Home for Nigeria
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While campaigning in 2011, Goodluck Jonathan won over his country with charismatic speeches that touched the deepest chords of hope among Nigerians. In one of his most inspiring addresses, he lifted the sights of Nigerians by stating,
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"In my early days in school I had no shoes, no school bags. I carried my books in my hands but never despaired; no car to take me to school, but I never despaired.
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There were days I had only one meal, but I never despaired. I walked miles and crossed rivers to school every day, but I never despaired. (I) didn't have power, didn't have generators, studied with lanterns, but I never despaired. In spite of these, I finished secondary school, attended the University of Port Harcourt, and now hold a doctoral degree. Fellow Nigerians, if I could make it, you too can make it."
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Mr. Jonathan, should Nigerian have to "make it" without power and book bags when oil revenue can supply the needs of the nation if managed properly? What does the average Nigerian think when he or she sees their economic lifeline (the fuel subsidy) removed when little to nothing has been done to tackle corruption inside and outside the government or force the multinational oil companies to use their technocratic expertise and wealth to enhance the lives of Nigerians rather than damage the environment and poison the political culture? What does the average Nigerian think when his or her labor union agrees to reduce the fuel subsidy and call off the nationwide strike to preserve its own power? If Nigerians cannot trust the president, the government, the big business sector or the unions, who can they trust?
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Welcome to Nigeria. "If you can survive Nigeria, you can survive anywhere."
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This is not what the country signed up for in electing Jonathan last year. While Nigerians may wish to despair, they should not do so yet. During the nationwide strike, something ought to have become quite apparent to Nigerians. When united as one - Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, Christian, Muslim, Animist, man, woman, child and everyone in between - they can determine their destiny. They can run Nigeria.
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As one, the Nigerian people can head back into the streets to demand: 1) a return of the entire fuel subsidy - perhaps to be eliminated gradually over a number of years and contingent upon broad economic progress, 2) a transparent process by which it is managed, 3) re-negotiation of terms with the oil companies to ensure protection of the environment and a more equitable distribution of profits , 4) a higher and enforced minimum wage, 5) a reduction in the extravagant salaries of government officials and 5) a fully-funded national program to improve education and infrastructure.
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Goodluck Jonathan seems to be a sincere person - a person, however, who has made an unfortunate error. Nigerians can help him recall his humble roots by helping themselves. In democracy, the onus is always on the people to take action and shape the government toward the ends of honesty, tolerance, justice and fairness.
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This is your time, Nigeria. Get involved, take action and do not despair.
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(Photo: Nigerians protesting the repeal of the fuel subsidy, January 2012)
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Key Sources/Further Reading
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1. Christopher Thompson, "'Curse of Oil' Sees Corruption Soar In Nigeria," The Independent (UK) (31 January 2007). See link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/curse-of-oil-sees-corruption-soar-in-nigeria-434405.html
2. Darren Foster, "Nigeria: The Corruption of Oil," PBS/Frontline (1 May 2007). See link: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2007/05/nigeria_the_cor.html
3. Eric Guttschuss, "Nigeria's Delta Blues," The Guardian (17 July 2008). See link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/17/nigeria.gordonbrown
4. "Shell and Halliburton Quizzed Over Nigeria 'Corruption,'" BBC NEWS (30 November 2010). See link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11877434
5. Stephanie Busari, "Goodluck Jonathan: Nigeria's Embattled President," CNN (30 January 2012). See link: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/23/world/africa/goodluck-jonathan-profile/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
6. "A Countdown In Nigeria," The Japan Times (30 January 2012). See link: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ed20120130a1.html
7. Xan Rice, "Nigerian President Yields On Fuel Subsidy," Financial Times (16 January 2012). See link: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9592e0cc-4020-11e1-9bce-00144feab49a.html#axzz1l5Vor0Dl
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J Roquen

No Luck For Goodluck Jonathan

2012-01-29T11:15:00.009-05:00

When Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan (b. 1957) assumed the presidency of Nigeria for the first time in 2010, he became the leader of one of the most difficult nations to govern in the world.
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As a political entity constructed from its days as a British colony, Nigeria is fragmented into three major religious groups by dint of geography. While the Muslim Hausa-Fulani peoples comprise much of the north, the south is divided by the animist Igbos (pronounced E-Bose) in the southeast and the Yorubas in the southwest - who split their allegiances to Christianity and Islam. The Nigerian population of 160 million is the largest in Africa, and no fewer than nine out of ten Nigerians believe in God. As Muslims, Christians and animists have disparate conceptions of how religion ought to relate to society, the idea of Nigeria as a nation has always been precarious.
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The key to understanding Nigeria is the nexus between religion, economics and education. The largely Muslim north is not only poor but largely illiterate. As ninety-five percent of Nigeria's Muslim women can neither read nor write, they are largely unable to educate their children. Consequently, the next generation of Nigerian Muslims may be as socially and economically alienated as many of their parents are today. While most people in the country subsist on $2 a day or less, the Muslim north has a greater degree of indigence than the south, and a toxic mixture of impoverishment, illiteracy and religious dogma has produced a radical Islamist movement similar to Al-Qaeda.
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In 2002, Mohammed Yusuf (1970-2009) founded Boko Haram, a militant organization of Muslim radicals, which seeks to overthrow the democratic Nigerian government and usher in Islamic caliphate-rule. In rejecting all Western influences and considering all non-Muslims to be infidels, they have embraced violence and terror to carry out their religious and political objectives. Although the Nigerian government successfully eliminated Yusuf three years ago, his organization remains a significant security threat. On Christmas Day, Boko Haram was likely behind a vicious bombing of a Catholic Church in the capital (Abuja). At least thirty-seven people died. On 20 January (2012), Boko Haram militants conducted an attack in in the northern city of Kano - one of the largest Muslim cities in the world - to protest the progressive leanings of its residents. More than two hundred innocent people were killed.
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Until Goodluck Jonathan was elected in 2011 after serving as head of state for several months upon the death of Umaru Musa Yar'Adua - a Muslim, it had been customary for the presidency to alternate between a Christian and a Muslim. Due to his even-handed style of governing, however, Jonathan, a Christian, was retained with a mandate of nearly 78% of the vote. As a result, more than a few Muslims consider his election a betrayal of the informal turnabout agreement on the office. For them, a Muslim should now be president to finish out the term of Yar'Adua.
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The Verge of Catastrophe
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That sense of uneasiness among moderate Muslims was compounded by Jonathan's decision to end the national fuel subsidy on 1 January. As Nigeria is the largest exporter of oil in Africa (Angola is second) and the fourteenth largest in the world, it has been able to support its economically deprived population by providing fuel at near at cost prices. Due to budgetary considerations, however, Jonathan and his government repealed the benefit on the first day of 2012.
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Predictably, there was an immediate popular backlash. Over a five-day period from 9-13 January, the divided nation went on a collective strike and effectively shut down the country. According to polls, 80% of Nigerians oppose Jonathan's decision to end the subsidy. While nationwide unity exists on this hotbed issue, the increase in fuel prices will disproportionately harm the poorest elements in society and further alienate and radicalize the Muslim north. There is already talk of splitting the nation in half to allow a Muslim nation in the north and a Christian/Animist nation in the south, and a palpable fear now exists that another civil war is in the offing. Many people still remember the catastrophic civil war of 1967. It took one million Nigerian lives, and the idea of Nigeria undergoing another holocaust is simply unthinkable. Yet, the prospect of such a conflict is unfortunately quite real.
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No Luck for Goodluck
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If the phenomenon of luck exists, it is almost always a product of hard work and making wise choices. The first responsibility of Jonathan and the government is to bridge the educational and economic divide between the north and the south. Rather than addressing these debilitating social factors, however, Jonathan has only exacerbated the chasms within the country by repealing the fuel subsidy - a lifeline of support for tens of millions. As the world knows, businesses pass on rising transportation costs by increasing the prices of their goods. Hence, Nigerian consumers, who have little to no disposable income, not only face higher gas prices but also higher prices for necessities such as food, clothing and medicine.
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At a time when Nigeria desperately needs sound investment in education and infrastructure from its oil profits, a broad re-distribution of wealth and a comprehensive plan to build communities of trust between people of different faiths, Jonathan may have just taken the fatal step toward the dissolution of the state by trying to balance a budget instead of balancing the larger and significantly more important interests of the citizens.
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The African Union and the international community cannot afford to ignore Nigeria's crisis. While offers of economic and technical assistance must come from the G-8 nations, social and community activists from South Africa and around the continent ought to converge upon Nigeria for a series of conferences in order to share their expertise in religious and cultural reconciliation.
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Unless Jonathan's government re-instates the fuel subsidy and takes steps to reshape Nigeria into an inclusive community based on social, economic and political equality, he will have no luck in governing the state.
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He will be out of luck. And Nigeria will be out of time.
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(Photo: Goodluck Jonathan)
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Key Sources/Further Reading
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1. To read an article in The Atlantic entitled "Should The World Help Break Up Nigeria In Order To Save It?" (24 January 2012), please click onto the following link: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/should-the-world-help-break-up-nigeria-in-order-to-save-it/251784/
2. To read a BBC NEWS article entitled "Is Nigeria On The Brink After North-South Clashes?" (13 January 2012), please click onto the following link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16544410
3. To view informative maps of Nigeria, please click onto kleostimes.tumblr.com to the right and check postings under 29 January.
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J Roquen

Is America The Greatest Nation On Earth?

2012-01-22T11:17:00.003-05:00

How would you react in the following situation? First, a little background is in order.
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After being invited to a posh dinner party in New York City, you arrive at the appointed day and time fashionably late. As the guest list consists of highly successful people from all over the world, you, of course, have dressed to the nines. As you were leaving the house, a member of your family, who has made a sport out of criticizing your attire, actually stated the following words just prior to your departure, "You have never looked better."
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Upon entering a dining room fit for kings, you are shown to your table. Seven others, who have already been seated, appear as if they had fallen out the classic American novel The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In a word, you are looking at what is called 'the upper crust' of society.
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As drinks are being served, one of the members at your table suggests that each person make a short introduction to break the ice. "Good idea," you think to yourself. For some reason, however, you have been singled out to make the first introduction. Now instead of "good idea," you are thinking "Why me?" You are nervous. Nevertheless, your introduction is over in no time at all.
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You quickly analyze your performance. You are fairly sure you got your name right and correctly identified yourself as a person from Toronto, Canada. Good enough.
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The other introductions proceed along the same routine lines - fairly close to name, rank and serial number - as a captured soldier would reveal to the enemy. Notably, everyone at the table is from a different country.

The last person to confess his identity is someone you will never forget.
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His introduction certainly started off well-enough, "Hello. My name is Joe Smith. I'm an attorney at Brown, Selig & Roberts - a firm specializing in corporate law." Nothing unusual there. It was how he ended his personal spiel that was unusual. "I have a wife and two beautiful kids, and what else can I say? Oh, I'm from Washington, DC - which of course is the capital of the greatest nation on earth."
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An uncomfortable pause ensued. He was kidding, right? The two people sitting next to you certainly thought so. They let out an indecorous chortle. At that very moment, Joe asked. "What's so funny?" An endless pause of astonishment poured over the table. After what seemed an eternity, fragmented small talk finally arose among the dinner guests to fill the awkward vacuum. "The greatest nation on earth," you kept thinking in the back of your mind, "Do Americans actually believe that?"
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In fact, a recent official survey (Gallup Poll) indicates that no fewer than 80% of Americans do believe their country to be the greatest nation on earth. In intellectual and foreign policy circles, this thinking is known as American exceptionalism. It is an interesting and thought-provoking idea. It is also exceptionally wrong.
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American Greatness
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This is not to suggest that the United States is devoid of greatness. Tens of millions of people around the world are lined up hoping to enter the country to study, work and live at any given moment. Why? First and foremost, America is the first truly international nation based on thirteen words that changed the world forever - "We hold that these truths are self-evident, That all men are created equal." That statement, which was written into the American Declaration of Independence (1776) by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), has withstood the test of time by having been successfully reinterpreted to include women, African-Americans and others originally left out of the revolution. Regardless of race, class, gender and level of wealth, each and every person, theoretically speaking, is equal in the eyes of the law and to the rest of society. When Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have A Dream" speech on 28 August 1963, he argued for civil rights by appealing to Jefferson's Declaration, and thankfully, his dream has come true to a large extent. Secondly, American greatness can be found in its other founding document - The Constitution of the United States. After an entire summer of meetings in Philadelphia in 1787 and subsequent deliberation in individual states, delegates established the framework to allow citizens the right of free speech, the right to assemble and a right to a trial by due process of law. In short, individuals had rights, and the state existed to serve the citizens - not the other way around. This was revolutionary greatness.
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Think of how many ruling classes of nation-states deny women equal status, persecute minority ethnic groups and treat their citizens as pawns to aggrandize their own power. In many of those countries, citizens do not have a democratic tradition or a founding document to combat tyranny. Any attempt to devise such a republican form of government is immediately quashed by the ruling elite. Remember Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China in 1989 or Iran in 2009? Jefferson's other immortal phrase "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" as a right to given to each person is also an idea of true greatness. Why? It is humane. It is tolerant, and it is hopeful. When the United States has placed human rights at the cornerstone of its domestic and foreign policies (i.e. Civil Rights legislation, labor laws, helping to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan), it has achieved moments and periods of greatness.
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It is well-known that the United States is the wealthiest nation, a leading innovator of technology and the only nation able to project military power across the globe. Despite its impressive achievements in promoting human rights, generating wealth and defending the world from tyranny (i.e the protection of Kosovo, the war against Al-Qaeda etc.), why then should Americans refrain from believing their country to be the greatest nation in the world?
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Reason One: Great Wealth Amid Great Poverty
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Have you ever been to Atlanta, Georgia? It is the largest city in the South. The people are friendly, and the Southern-fried food is delicious. Whatever you do, do not forget to try the peach cobbler - warmed up next to a scoop of cold, vanilla ice cream.
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As a transportation gateway, the city has attracted a host of Fortune 500 companies. If you drive around the city, you will inevitably come across at least one enclave of giant mansions where the well-to-do live. Their incomes are in the millions and the tens of millions (dollars). Their net worth is in the tens of millions or hundreds of millions. One look at the Olympic-size pool and the BBQ area, which is larger than a typical condominium, tells you in incorrect but home-style American English - "This ain't middle America." More than ninety percent of Atlanta's residents do not enjoy such a lifestyle, however. Most are middle-class with average incomes large enough to pay a mortgage on a small house and enjoy a reasonable vacation every few years. Yet, more and more people in Atlanta are now leading lives that resemble the ones of Alan and Andono Bryant.
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Alan is 47. Andono, his wife, is 44. Some years back, Alan, who was working two and three jobs as a cook to make ends meet, lost his one of his jobs. The problem? That was the job that gave him and his wife a health insurance plan. Andono, who had lost one of her jobs earlier, had a heart attack and required extensive medical treatment costing nearly $50,000. In the absence of insurance, they had to sell their house. Due to the poor real-estate market, they received only a small return on their investment.
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Today, Alan works as a cook at a Ruth Chris Steak House. This upscale restaurant charges $44 for its best steak and $7 for a potato. Alan makes $11 per hour - approximately one and a half rich man potatoes. Alan gets satisfaction by making a good meal for his customers - some of which live in one of those wealthy enclaves on the other side of town.
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They shop at a co-op. Essentially, it is a supermarket for the poor and anyone living on the economic margins of society. As they can buy groceries for a fraction of the cost of what Americans still in the middle-class pay, they consider themselves lucky. To a degree, they actually are lucky. Some people have no access to discounted food.
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There is an old expression in America, "You can't afford to get sick." The Bryants are living that reality. Yet, they are far from alone. Out of 310 million people, approximately 45 million Americans have limited or no health insurance. The same number of people live below the poverty line. Many live in homeless shelters or squalid rooms in dilapidated houses. Others live on the street. When you visit Washington, DC (the capital of the so-called greatest nation on earth), you will see its parks, its subway stations and its streets filled with the dispossessed. They are only blocks away from the White House and the same distance from Georgetown and Dupont Circle - two of the wealthiest areas of the city.
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Alan and Andono Bryant are African-American, yet it must be remembered that most of America's poor are white. At the same time, however, African-Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately poor compared to whites overall. The long hand of history in the form of structural racism still exists, and King's dream has not been fully realized - despite the fact that the current president is African-American.
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Can America claim to be the greatest nation on earth when 50 million people live in poverty and another 50-75 million people barely hang onto their middle-class status amid a nation with unprecedented wealth?
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Americans need to take a hard look in the mirror. People with individual liberty and no economic security are only half free.
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Reason Two: Guns Over Common Sense
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One year ago this month, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (b. 1970) was at a supermarket (not a co-op) visiting with some of her supporters. Shots rang out. In an instant, six people were either dead or dying. One of those killed was a nine year-old girl. Giffords was struck in the head and rushed to the hospital. After a series of operations, she somehow survived. Her assailant, Jared Lee Loughner, then 22 years-old, was placed under arrest.
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New Year 2012 is quite different from New Year 2011 for the surviving victims and their families. For the relatives of the six people gunned down, they lead lives of heartbreak. A father and a mother have lost their nine year-old girl forever. Imagine their pain. As for Giffords, she struggles to talk and has lost fifty-percent of her vision.
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After that high-profile case of gun violence, Americans have had a serious debate on gun control over the past year, right? Wrong. There has been little to no debate on gun control at all. Even Congresswoman Giffords, who supported the right to own firearms prior to her near-fatal experience, has not altered her stance on the issue.
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In the United States, it is possible to buy and own a gun with a little money and a background check. At gun shows in some states, a background check is not required before taking possession of a gun. Hence, can Jacob Lee Loughner be said to be solely responsible for the crime - or was he and the society that gave him free access to his gun responsible? If America had banned firearms in 2010, Loughner may not have been able to carry out his deadly attack. Six people would be alive, and Giffords would be able to form speech and see as well as she did on New Year's Day 2011.
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Americans need ask themselves the following question over and over: "Is my right to own a gun more precious than a human life?" If the answer is "No," then a movement to add a constitutional amendment to The Constitution nullifying the Second Amendment ('the right to bear arms') ought to begin immediately. As more than 10,000 Americans die in gun-related violence each year, there is no time to lose.
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Most of those gun-related deaths occur in areas of urban blight - far away from the more affluent sections (i.e. tourist areas). Hence, many of the poor have the worst of all worlds in having no hope, no meaningful education, no jobs and plenty of violence. More school shootings and gun-violence in middle-class America can also be expected as long as national gun-control remains off the political table.
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Can America claim to be the greatest nation on earth where it is easier to get a gun than a full-time job with health insurance?
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A Definition Of The Greatest Country In The World
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If America enacts gun-control measures and lifts nearly everyone up to middle-class status through a whirlwind of reform over the next twenty-years - and still remains democratic, the wealthiest country and retains the most powerful military, will it then be the greatest nation on earth?
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Even if America could somehow become a nation devoid of any suffering whatsoever and project its ideals perfectly across the globe, it would still not be greatest nation on earth for one simple reason. Objectively speaking, there is no such thing as a greatest nation on earth.
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Nations are artificial constructions. They are made up. To use an apt concept from scholar Benedict Anderson, they are imagined communities. Nations come and go. They are redefined across time and space. Today's France, for example, is quite dissimilar to the one of Louis XIV (1638-1715), and Prussia, which was born as a state in 1525, dissolved into Poland in 1947.
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There is only one sense in which we can speak of a greatest nation on earth. It is personally and individually. The greatest nation on earth - or perhaps 'country in the world' is a better phrase - is the one where you were born.
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It is the one that gave you a beautiful language and culture.
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The greatest country in the world is the one where your parents sacrificed for you to live out your dreams.
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It is the one where your son and daughter calls you 'Dad' or 'Mom.'
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The greatest country in the world is the one where your closest friends have watched you grow up, change as a person - and laugh when you laugh, and cry when you cry.
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It is also the one you where you have failed and succeeded through the trials of life. Your country is not only a physical boundary but a landscape of memory - that includes joy, sorrow and everything in between.
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Above all, the greatest country in the world is the one where you first discovered the timelessness of love, the endless beauty of compassion and the practice of tolerance and charity to all.
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That is the mark of true greatness.
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That is your country. That is every country.
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(Photo: An American mother plays with her daughter in a homeless shelter)
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Key Sources
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1. To read the CNN article about the Bryant family in Atlanta, please click onto the following link: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/08/us/income-gap-profile/index.html
2. To view the Gallup Poll with reference to American views of their own exceptionalism, please click onto the following link: http://www.gallup.com/poll/145358/americans-exceptional-doubt-obama.aspx
3. For statistics on gun-violence in America, please see the study by LCAV (Legal Community Against Violence) at the following link: http://www.lcav.org/statistics-polling/gun_violence_statistics.asp
4. To view an informative graph on poverty in America from the US Census Bureau, please click onto the following link: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2010/figure4.pdf
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The author is an American from a good and decent country - but not from 'the greatest nation on earth.'
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J Roquen

el-Masreyyah (The Egyptian Woman)

2012-01-15T11:18:00.001-05:00

On her long train ride from Rome to Cairo in 1923, Huda Shaarawi (1879-1947) must have had plenty to think about while watching the journey go by mile after mile. Born in a town on the bank of the Nile River, she read the Qur'an, mastered Arabic and learned Persian and Turkish. She wrote poetry and had a rare disposition. Not only did she have convictions but she had the courage of her convictions.
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Those convictions did not square with what society wanted her to do. Women in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Egypt were socially coerced to remain at home and forced to shun public life. In a word, they were to be subservient to men - and they were subservient to men.
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For Shaarawi and millions of other Egyptian women, it was time to escape from their collective patriarchal straitjacket. Nearly a century before the Internet, e-mail, cell phone texting and Twitter, Shaarawi began organizing women into a movement in the 1910s for equal rights - advocating equal access to education and women's suffrage (the right to vote). In 1919, she and her Egyptian sisters became involved in national and international politics - an unheard of proposition in a male-dominated society - by joining men across the country in their campaign against British colonial rule.
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When Shaarawi boarded the train to attend a conference in Rome in 1923, she went as the founder and president of the Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU) - an organization dedicated to re-making Egyptian society into one of equal respect, equal dignity and equal rights for both women and men. To Shaarawi and her sisters, it was only obvious. When men subordinate women, they only debase themselves. As such, the EFU published the journal el-Masrayyah (The Egyptian Woman) to disseminate their progressive views.
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Upon her arrival in Cairo, Shaarawi stepped off the train and tore her hijab (headscarf) off her head in an act of defiance. Her followers, who were all leaders in their own right, had mixed reactions. Some applauded. Others applauded and threw their headscarves to the ground. Still others, who probably perceived her gesture as radical or unnecessary at the very least, did not react. Indeed, Shaarawi's gesture of discarding her hijab is open to interpretation. Yet, she was likely not objecting to wearing the hijab per se - as it had not been an issue for the EFU. It seems clear that Shaarawi did not consider the hijab a symbol of patriarchal domination. Rather, her objection was to being required and coerced into wearing one. She wisely understood that those who control ideology control society. As the decision for Muslim women to wear a hijab had been made by all-male religious elites from their patriarchal interpretations of the Qu'ran, it could not be legitimate in her eyes.
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Shaarawi was right and well-ahead of her time. In any objective reading, the Qur'an does not subordinate women to men, and no explicit rule exists in the text for women to wear the hijab. The decision to wear one, therefore, must be made by individual Muslim women. That idea was wholly consistent with Shaarawi's feminism. Women deserve equal rights in all spheres of society - politics, the economy, religious practice and in their marriages.
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Twenty Million Candles
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Last month, the world was horrified to watch members of the Egyptian military attack unarmed, defenseless citizens protesting peacefully for democracy and women's rights in Tahrir Square in Cairo. One particularly brutal assault of an anonymous girl with a blue bra was caught on camera. It revealed the despicable misogyny still extant in Egyptian society and in the Arab world. Along with that incident, more than one-hundred documented cases of physical and sexual assault were carried out against both girls (under eighteen years-old) and women by Egyptian soldiers in 2011.
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In response to the December military assault, thousands of Egyptian men, who understand that no one with a conscience can stand idly by while defenseless people - especially women - are attacked, marched alongside thousands of women with pictures of 'Blue Bra Girl' to express their outrage, demand justice and insist on an Egypt free of gender discrimination.
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Now that the Muslim Brotherhood has captured half of parliament, it will be necessary for Egypt's men and women across the religious spectrum to unite against any attempts by the Brotherhood and radical Salafis to erode women's rights and re-constitute old forms of patriarchy.
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2011 was a year of storm and stress across the world. Women marched in unprecedented numbers across the Middle East and Africa for their equal right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' Although two weeks have passed, 2012 has not quite begun yet. The world seems to have stopped to take a collective breath after twelve months of struggle against tyranny. Can you sense the lull? Yet, it is only a lull before another storm, and the world must again storm ahead in its quest to secure equal rights and justice for all.
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If Huda Shaarawi were alive today, she would undoubtedly be shocked by the secondary status of women in her country and immediately plan a course of action. The Egyptian woman of 2012 would do well to resurrect the memory of Shaarawi - as her legacy is one of hope and courage to all Egyptians.
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On 21 March, Egypt will celebrate Mother's Day. Imagine ten million men and ten million women standing shoulder-to-shoulder in silence that evening in Cairo, in Alexandria, in Minya (birthplace of Shaarawi), in Luxor and elsewhere - each holding a candle to honor the mothers of Egypt and to stand for the right of women to enjoy full equality in the law and in society.
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Now imagine tens of millions of Egypt's sisters and brothers in Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen, who celebrate Mother's Day on the same day, also holding candles to honor their mothers, sisters, daughters and wives at the same time - a mass demonstration for hope, love, peace and dignity for all.
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Such an event would send a chill down the spine of every tyrant and ally of patriarchy - and inspire the entire world.
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Let 2012 begin.
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Key Sources
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1. To watch footage of the 'Blue Bra Girl' and other protesters being beaten by Egyptian soldiers, please click onto the following link. Warning: The video contains scenes of graphic violence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf_0p4a_GwI
2. To watch a video report on Egypt's recent elections in AlJazeera, please click onto the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHLEBtLsVho
3. To read an article and excellent analysis coupling Huda Shaarawi with the crimes committed against the 'Blue Bra Girl' and others in Tahrir Square in December in CNN, please click onto the following link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/22/opinion/coleman-women-egypt-protest/index.html
4. To read a 9 January 2012 article in The New York Times on the documented cases of sexual intimidation and assault on women by members of Egypt's military, please click onto the following link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/world/middleeast/egyptian-women-confront-restrictions-of-patriarchy.html
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(Photo: An Egyptian woman kisses a young Egyptian soldier. To view a photo of Huda Shaarawi, please click onto kleostimes to the right and check postings for Sunday, 15 January)
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J Roquen

To Russia With Love

2012-01-08T08:30:00.002-05:00

When the James Bond film From Russia With Love opened in London on 10 October 1963, prospects for a rapprochement between the United States and the Soviet Union seemed to be on the horizon. Exactly four months earlier (10 June), US President John F. Kennedy delivered an historic address at American University in Washington, DC praising the Russian people for their immense contribution to the defeat of the Third Reich. Unquestionably, no country fought harder or sacrificed more than Russia during World War II, and of the many battles against Nazi forces - the Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most heroic and consequential engagements of the war. It was a victory of hope and tenacity against hatred and horror - a fight by soldiers and civilians that helped save Russia and the world.
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To Stalingrad
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On 22 June 1941, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) launched Operation Barbarossa with a massive attack on the Soviet Union. As a Treaty of Non-Aggression had been concluded by Moscow and Berlin two years earlier (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 23 August 1939), Stalin, who was completely taken aback by the Fuhrer's volte face, disappeared from public sight for several days. After the initial shock of being duped by disingenuous Nazi diplomacy, Stalin recovered and began to plan Russia's defense. He would do so, however, without many talented officers. Due to his lust for power and paranoid fear of others, Stalin eliminated potential rivals in the Communist Party and in the military. His 'lucky' victims went to jail. The rest were murdered outright. In between these two ruthless dictators were the Russian people of Volgograd in the Caucasus. Renamed Stalingrad in 1925 by the Soviet leader, Hitler was determined to smash the eponymous city as a symbol of Nazi power over communism and as a personal triumph over Stalin.
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What did Hitler want in the Caucasus? It was what he and his army needed - oil. If able to seize Russia's largest oilfields and squash Russian resistance in region, Hitler could proceed to conquer the entire country.
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After a long summer campaign, Hitler's Sixth Army, led by General Friedrich Paulus (1890-1957), was downsized and sent to capture Stalingrad. Hitler had every reason to believe the city would fall quickly as Red Army had already taken significant losses and were in the process of conducting a demoralizing retreat. Yet, he forgot one crucial component in the equation of war - the determination of the Russian people. Regardless of his uncountable crimes against humanity, Stalin did make a few good decisions in the war. One of them was to not evacuate the civilian population from Stalingrad. He rightly understood that civilians and soldiers would pose far stiffer resistance if they stood as one in defense of their homeland. Under Stalin's directive "Not One Step Back," the people of Stalingrad braced themselves against the mighty onslaught of the Nazi war machine.
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From August 1942 to February 1943, the Russian people fought the invaders with every fiber in their collective being. When the Luftwaffe (the Nazi air force) saturated the city with bombs, women, who constituted half of all the Russian anti-aircraft gunners, fired with success and brought down more than a few enemy planes. Despite taking ninety percent of the city, a Nazi victory proved elusive. Through building-to-building and hand-to-hand combat, the Red Army and the citizen-soldiers of Stalingrad slowly began to roll back the terrain captured by the Sixth Army.
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And then Russia's great friend came once again - the same friend that helped defeat Napoleon in 1812 - the Russian winter. Temperatures plummeted to more than thirty degrees below zero. Significant amounts of snow fell, and German supply lines, which had been overstretched from the beginning, became even more precarious and threatened the entire operation. Realizing that the Sixth Army was now vulnerable, General Paulus wisely asked permission to withdraw on 10 November. Hitler would have none of it. Stalingrad was to be taken at all costs. It was personal.
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Nine days later, Russian reinforcements crossed the Volga River. Partly equipped with arms and supplies from the United States under Franklin Roosevelt's ingenious Lend-Lease Act, they began a formidable counterattack. In a matter of only weeks, the Sixth Army was surrounded by Russian forces and cut off from supplies. Hitler told Paulus to wait for a rescue force to break through the Russian ring, but no such relief came. Consequently, the 250,000 soldiers under Paulus' command froze and began to starve. Many died. Paulus asked Hitler if he could surrender to save his army. The Fuhrer refused and subsequently made Paulus a Field Marshal. Why? No Field Marshal had ever surrendered. Yet, Hitler's psychological ruse did not work. Paulus capitulated on the same day of his appointment on 31 January 1943.
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The Legacy of Stalingrad, 1942-2012
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How did they survive? One year prior to the Battle of Stalingrad, 4,000 Russians were dying each day in the Nazi siege of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg). The Battles of Leningrad and Stalingrad brought out the best in the Russian people - men, women and children working side by side with one common goal. They did not fight Hitler's tyrannical regime to have their own tyrannical government at home. They were not fighting to preserve their secret police state replete with rigged elections and a militarist foreign policy. They did not fight to live in a country where a person could be sent to a gulag (Soviet concentration camp) for expressing views contrary to those in power.
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They fought for freedom. They fought to save their families - and refused to give up hope of a better day for Russia.
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Along with its record of heroism, the Red Army committed terrible atrocities in Eastern Europe including the deportation of non-Russian populations and mass rape. Human beings simply cannot handle war. Long periods of systematic violence and horror can turn even the best of men - anywhere in the world - into monsters. This is why war needs to be permanently eliminated in our present century.
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Nevertheless, the courage and the sacrifices of the soldiers and civilians at Leningrad, Stalingrad and elsewhere against Hitler's armies deserves praise, and all of us, including the German people - many of which wanted Hitler removed from power before 1945, owe a debt of gratitude to the Russian people for refusing to surrender their lives, their homes and their dreams to a regime based on lies and bent on endless war and genocide.
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On 22 November 1963, President John F. Kennedy was tragically assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Less than a year later, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) was forced into exile by reactionaries for bravely attempting to lead his country out of its Stalinist legacy. A US-Soviet Summit, which had been in its early planning stages, did not take place, and the Cold War continued in earnest.
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In the official collapse of the Soviet Union on 31 December 1991, the resilient Russian people achieved a feat that had at one time seemed all but impossible. They had survived both Hitler and Stalin. Since then, the promise of Russian democracy has collapsed into an unholy alliance between ultra-wealthy financial elites and ultra-nationalist politicians. Similar to Hitler and Stalin, their interest is in the state rather than the individual. That is not democracy. Democracy is an exercise "of the people, by the people and for the people" - to quote Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address (1863).
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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has consistently claimed to support Russian democracy, but actions are louder than words. If so, why has he handed over the state to a cadre of corrupt plutocrats? Why has he been allowed to essentially install his puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, into the presidency? Why does he refuse to hold a recount over recent parliamentary elections, which may have been rigged, after massive Russian protests? Why has his government curtailed freedom of the press and failed to launch a serious investigation of the murders of journalist Anna Politkovskaya and other investigative reporters critical of Putin's war against Ossetia and Chechnya? Why has Putin been allowed to wage a not-so covert war against democratic nations in Eastern Europe - using energy and energy policies as weapons? If Putin believes in democracy, why has his government allowed Russian companies to build a nuclear reactor in Iran despite Tehran's cruel dictatorship and stated intention to become a nuclear-armed power?
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Putin and the oligarchs maintain a dark and cynical view of the world. In their eyes, the Russian people are mere pawns to be used to accumulate more political and economic power for themselves and their state. But it is not their state. Russia belongs to its people.
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On 4 March, elections will be held to determine the next president. To honor the sacrifices made by its World War II generation, Russians must continue to organize, network and stand up for democracy in the streets. A relentless campaign must be waged until freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free elections, economic security and a full program of human rights are accorded to every citizen. It may take months or even years, but the Russian people are used to long, soul-testing struggles.
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These are the hard realities of history and today. We cannot afford to ignore or wish them away. In so doing, Russia and the people of the world must indefatigably strive for universal justice.
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When united for peace, hope and freedom, the Russian people cannot be defeated. That is a lesson Napoleon and Hitler learned the hard way. Soon, it will be the turn of the anti-democratic elites in Russia to do the same.
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(Photo: A Russian solider waves the flag in victory at Stalingrad, 1943. To view additional photos of Stalingrad and to read President Kennedy's remarks praising Russian efforts during World War II in his American University Address on 10 June 1963, please click onto the kleostimes.tumblr.com link to the right and see postings for Sunday, 8 January)
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Key Sources/Recommendations
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1. Anthony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-1943 (New York: Penguin, 1999).
2. Laurence Olivier (narrator), The World At War Vol II. (Documentary film, 1974).
3. James L. Stokesbury, A Short History of World War II (New York: HarperCollins, 1980).
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J Roquen

2012

2012-01-01T01:12:00.000-05:00

2011 was a remarkable year in world history.
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It may have been another year of economic hardship and political repression for millions, but there was a difference. This time - people started organizing and demanding their right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' in every corner of the globe. As a result, dictators fell from power, ineffective democratic leaders were voted out of office and corrupt elites were challenged by mass movements in dozens of nations.
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We all have the same dream. We want economic security. We desire lives defined by the currency of love and compassion rather than the currency of dollars, euros or pesos. We demand freedom of speech and freedom of religion (and the freedom not to worship). We know that governments are created by people to serve people. People are not created to serve governments. As such, we insist on having true democracies where everyone can freely and fully participate in the making of our nations.
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What is our ultimate aim? It is quite simple - one united world with peace and justice for all. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less.
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Truth and The Power of the People
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In the last year of his life, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) published his heliocentric views in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, 1543) proving the Earth rotated around the sun rather than vice versa. Subscribers to his revolutionary theory were deemed heretical and punished by the Church. Yet, the Church was unable to hold its scientifically untenable position, and the 'heretics' prevailed. Why? It is because they had the truth on their side. No one today believes the sun rotates around the Earth.
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The same can be said about the mass movements that began in 2011 for human rights, democracy and transparency in government. The people have the truth on their side. While the 'Occupy' protesters in United States have made Americans conscious that extreme wealth inequality is anti-democratic and unethical, the people of Egypt forced the heavy-handed Mubarak regime from power in a demonstration of solidarity across ethnic, religious and class lines. These are but two examples from the year.
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In 2011, people in the United States, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, India, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Cote d'Ivoire, Pakistan and many other countries courageously banded together to fight tyranny and corruption in all of its forms. There were even significant protests in several regions of China.
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At the forefront of most of these national movements, especially in the Middle East, were women. As the twenty-first century will go down in history as 'The Century of the Woman,'2011 may well be regarded as the breakthrough year for the long-oppressed women in the East.
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April 25th is a day to cherish and celebrate for many reasons. One reason? It is the day Manal Al-Sharif, the young Saudi activist, was born in 1979. Despite being married and raising a five-year old son, she risked her career and her freedom to lead a campaign against Riyadh's prohibition of women drivers. After posting a video of herself driving, she was arrested and sent to jail. Because she had reason - the truth - on her side, she was not intimidated.
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Due to her efforts, not only have a significant number of male Saudi intellectuals voiced support for her movement but the Shura Council (the advisory panel to the King) has also promised to allow women to participate in elections within the next few years. While these concessions are neither timely enough nor far-reaching enough, significant progress toward equality has already been made by Manal and the brave women of Saudi Arabia. Their campaign must not end.
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2012
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2012 will not be successful unless we continue to stand up for democracy, justice and peace. Until poverty, racism, gender-bias, tyranny, intolerance and corruption are eradicated from our world, we can neither be silent nor passive.
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In our quest, we must hold onto hope and hold onto each other.
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Never give up - never.
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(Photo: Manal Al-Sharif, b. 1979)
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J Roquen

One Good Henry

2011-12-29T11:25:00.000-05:00

Paris was abuzz with excitement. Thousands of people came from all over France to celebrate the royal wedding between Henry of Navarre (1553-1610) and Margaret of Valois (1553-1615). It was supposed to be a week of jubilation for the country, but it turned into a nightmare of historic proportions.
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Six days after Henry and Margaret were pronounced man and wife in Notre Dame Cathedral on 18 August 1572, the capital, which was still teeming with visitors, became a stage for religious violence between Catholics and Protestants. On Saint Bartholomew's Day (24 August), a massacre occurred. Unspeakable crimes took place between men who were once brothers. A countless number of Protestants were killed - along with more than a few Catholics. As such it became one of the most horrific days of the ongoing war between supporters of the Church and the followers of John Calvin (1509-1564) - Protestants known as Huguenots in France. They rejected Church authority and subscribed to theological views deemed heretical by the Vatican. Consequently, France became ideologically divided and thrown into a bitter civil war.
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Henry of Navarre (Navarre is a Spanish province that borders France) not only fought Catholic armies for the Protestant cause as a Protestant but he was also in line to become the next King of France. Hence, power in the form of the right of succession was at the heart of the struggle.
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After nearly a dozen years in the field, Henry of Navarre found himself besieged by two other Henrys. While Henry III (1551-1589), the young French Catholic King, conducted a Royalist campaign against Protestant armies, the Catholic League, led by Henry I, Duke of Guise (1550-1588), undertook the far more ambitious and sinister mission of expunging Protestantism and all Protestants from France altogether. Notably, Henry I received support from the Pope and Philip II of Spain (1527-1598). Although the 'War of Three Henrys,' which lasted from 1587 to 1589, ended with the death of King Henry III on 2 August, it took five long, hard years for Henry of Navarre to accede to the throne.
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They would prove to be among his finest years.
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As Margaret had saved her husband from the anti-Protestant mobs of Paris, Henry was surely appreciative, but she was a stranger to him. Their marriage just before the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre had been arranged for political reasons. During his trying time between the 'War of Three Henrys' (1587-1589) and his coronation as King on 27 February 1594, Henry continued to command his Protestant army at great odds. Where did he find the courage to press on?
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His inspiration came from Gabrielle d' Estrees (1573-1599) - the love of Henry's life. They adored each other. Rather than sit idly by hoping Henry would emerge victorious, Gabrielle joined him on his campaigns - even while pregnant - as she would bear him four children in quick succession. Yet, she did far more than just take care of Henry by feeding and clothing him. Gabrielle was his confidant, best friend and first adviser in all matters. It was a matter of true love and complete trust.
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By the early 1590s, it became clear to Gabrielle that the war was not winnable. Neither Catholic Paris nor predominantly Catholic France were going to allow Henry to become ruler as a Protestant. Hence, she advised Henry to convert to Catholicism to end the vicious religious wars. He agreed, and reportedly stated, "Paris vaut bien une messe" ('Paris is well worth a Mass'). In short, Henry decided to sacrifice his rigid ideas for the good of the country, and he became a Catholic on 25 July 1593.
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Was his conversion a cynical ploy to gain power? Four years after becoming Henry IV, King of France, Henry answered those critics who made this very assertion by issuing the Edict of Nantes (1598) - a proclamation that granted religious tolerance to Protestants - allowing each citizen to decide his or her religion as a matter of conscience. It was a watershed moment of history and the beginning of the modern conception of human rights.
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For sixteen years, Henry ruled with compassion and justice toward all of his subjects. Perhaps his reign of can best be summed up in his most famous utterance, "Si Dieu me prete vie, je ferai qu'il n'y aura point de laboureur en mon royaume qui n'ait les moyens d'avoir le dimanche une poule dans son pot!" ('If God keeps me, I will make sure that there is no working man in my kingdom who does not have the means to have a chicken in the pot every Sunday') By comparison to many regimes in the early twenty-first century, Henry was a supremely enlightened ruler due to his endorsement of both religious freedom and a significant degree of economic equality. For his good nature and devotion to France, he earned the nickname le bon roi Henry ('Good King Henry').
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Unfortunately, his personal story does not have a happy ending. Gabrielle unexpectedly died in April 1599 at age twenty-six or twenty-seven (her date of birth is unknown). Henry was devastated but served his country honorably for eleven more years. On 14 May 1610, Henry was stabbed to death by a Catholic religious fanatic who likely had taken umbrage at his grant of religious tolerance to Protestants. Despite his tragic last years, however, Henry IV died triumphantly. He had brought war to an end and succeeded in ushering in a new age of liberty.
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The Lessons of Henry IV for The Twenty-First Century
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Beyond these historical facts, what can a person, who lives in the globalized twenty-first century, learn from Henry of Navarre (Henry IV)? Actually, there are many universal truths in his tale.
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Arranged Marriages: Many people, particularly in parts of South Asia, still practice arranged marriage. On countless numbers of websites in India, for example, teenagers post their thoughts on its validity. Some believe it to be practical. Others consider spontaneous romantic love the only option. Whatever the case, parents who force their children into arranged marriages are likely to cause significant harm to both the young man and the young woman. Henry probably liked Margaret, but he could not love her. As a result, his heart, which sought true love, belonged to Gabrielle.
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Religious/Ideological Tolerance: There are far too many states in the twenty-first century that do not allow their citizens the right to worship or not worship as a matter of individual choice. This tyranny of the mind must come to an end. No state has the right to prevent people from exercising their religious preferences or expressing their religious views in public. From Henry's precedent in the Edict of Nantes, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), the author of the American Declaration of Independence, once rightly quipped, "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." That is the view the entire world must adopt.
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Women: A Force in History: If Margaret (Henry's first wife) had not saved him from religious mobs and Henry had failed to listen to Gabrielle's advice on becoming a Catholic, how much success would Henry have had in attaining the throne, uniting France and bringing peace to the country? Not much. Henry respected women as equal human beings. That was not only his strength but the strength of his reign and the strength of his kingdom. Henry was biologically made, socially made and intellectually made by women. As such, he retained a profound sense of indebtedness to womankind throughout his life. The twenty-first century male ought to follow his example.
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Love: What do the following words have in common: girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, spouse, fiancee? They are all words that connote possessive love relationships. When Henry fell in love and began his relationship with Gabrielle, it might be said that he was 'cheating' on his wife. As his marriage to Margaret was arranged out of politics, however, was Henry actually 'cheating'? Perhaps Henry was cheated out of the opportunity to find true love, and his marriage was more a form of cheating than his relationship with Gabrielle. Humankind has attempted to bottle love since the beginning of time, and the attempt to capture romantic love will likely never cease. Yet, the world may be moving to a new definition of love without possession. As much as Henry adored Gabrielle, he loved many other women quite genuinely. Hence, Henry may one day be considered a social pioneer of sorts if possessive love declines and falls over the next century.
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While there may not be any such thing as a 'Great Man or Great Woman' in history, some men and some women are greater than others. They are exceptional, and these exceptional figures of history all have the same character traits: intelligence, tolerance, empathy, fairness and a vision of hope.
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That is the leadership the world needs in 2012 and beyond.
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(Image: A Portrait of Henry IV. To view images of Henry's wife Margaret and his mistress, Gabrielle, please click onto KleosTimes at the right and check the postings for 29 December)
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J Roquen

After Christmas: Russia, 1825 & 2011

2011-12-22T10:36:00.000-05:00

Seismic historical events often happen just after Christmas in Russia.
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On 1 December 1825, Emperor Alexander I (1777-1825) died. When the expected successor, Constantine Pavlovich (1779-1831) refused the throne, his brother of twenty-nine years stood poised to take the reins of power. Young Nicholas, however, did not have the full allegiance of the armed forces, and a significant portion of the military rebelled and attempted a palace coup the day after Christmas. Although some of the insurrectionists were able to break into the Winter Palace, they were ultimately outnumbered and crushed - and the 'Decembrist Revolt' came to an end. Nicholas became Nicholas I, and his nearly thirty-year reign would prove to be one of the cruelest in Russian history - especially to Jews.
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Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931) was an enlightened Communist. He was born after 1917. As such, he was not as steeped in Marxist dogma as those of the Revolutionary generation. By the time he was tapped to head the Soviet state in 1986, it was already too late. The economy had been crushed under the weight of a massive bureaucracy. More importantly, people, including those in the Soviet satellite-nations in Eastern Europe, wanted Marx's 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' and all of its trappings to disappear. The Stalinist state, replete with secret police and gulags (concentration camps for dissidents), began to crumble without believers.
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Gorbachev made a valiant attempt to keep the ailing utopian experiment alive through economic restructuring (perestroika) and by allowing more freedom of expression (glasnost), but less than a week after Christmas on 31 December 1991, the verdict of history arrived on Communist tyranny - failure and extinction.
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After Christmas 2011
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On 4 March 2012, Russia will hold elections to determine the next president. Vladimir Putin (b. 1952), who held the post from 2000-2008 and now serves as the prime minister, will again vie for the top job. Putin's former Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev (b. 1965), is the current president and will likely have to defeat his old boss in the election to remain in power. Aside from Putin and Medvedev, Mikhail Prokhorov (b. 1965), a Russian billionaire, has recently decided to run for president as an independent candidate. Notably, he has said that his first act if elected would be to pardon Mikhail Khodorkovsky (b. 1963) - a former oil tycoon and once the wealthiest man in Russia - who was convicted for fraud by the government. At the very least, Khodorkovsky was targeted in part for financing political candidates that opposed the interests of Putin and his allied ruling clique. Indeed, the human rights organization Amnesty International considers Khodorkovsky and his jailed partner, Platon Lebedev (b. 1956), 'prisoners of conscience' and has demanded their release.
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In putting Khodorkovsky and Lebedev behind bars, the Putin-Medvedev led government has 'castrated democracy' - a phrase rightly uttered by the now eighty year-old Mikhail Gorbachev a few months ago. Then again, democracy in Russia since 1992 has been a matter of forms rather than substance.
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Laws and Bullets: Silencing Opposition
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If you are a Russian parent of a young, recent college graduate, the last thing you want to hear is your son or daughter wish to become a journalist at Novaya Gazeta. Last year, twenty-five year old Novaya Gazeta intern Anastasia Baburova (b. 1983), a bright Ukrainian who spoke four languages including French and English, began investigating emerging neo-Nazi groups for the purpose of publishing independent articles on their workings. Not long into her research, she and human rights lawyer/journalist, Stanislav Markelov (b. 1974), were murdered in cold blood.
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While her interest in writing on emerging neo-Nazi movements may have induced her assassins to take action, it is more likely that her outspoken nature and affiliation with Autonomous Action, a political organization dedicated to fighting nationalism, militarism and corrupt capitalism, constituted the larger threat to the thinly-veiled mafia-kings that control large parts of the Russian state. By killing Markelov at the same time, they were able to silence an up-and-coming leader and critic of Moscow's vicious campaign against Chechnya - one that has been replete with torture and executions.
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For Russians, it is the same old story. Nearly six years ago, Anna Politkovskaya (1958-2006), a journalist for Novaya Gazeta and human rights activist, was gunned down at her apartment building after publishing many articles and several books revealing the heinous crimes of the Russian military in Chechnya. Her murder remains unsolved...or does it?
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Everyone in Russia and around the world with any political sense knows who is behind these murders. It is the half-shadow government of quasi-legitimate oligarchs that control most of Russia's major industries, own most of Russia's wealth and are closely allied with the military.
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Welcome to proto-fascism - a lethal mixture of ultra-nationalism, militarism and a concentration of wealth in the hands of a small elite. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, many Russians could economically afford to ignore their politics. Wages and purchasing power increased for a large segment of the population. Over the past two decades overall, however, the oligarchs have amassed a larger and larger share of the wealth at the expense of the nation. While the richest 20% of the population has seen its fortunes almost double since the last day of the Soviet Union in 1991, nearly two-thirds of Russians have either stagnated or regressed economically over the same period. If left unchecked, wealth will continue to drain out of the middle and lower classes to the top.
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The Choice for Russia After Christmas
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Although the election of Mikhail Prokhorov would be a step in the right direction to restoring democracy, the dark forces of tyranny in Russia can only be defeated through the courage of each and every Russian citizen. Following the footsteps of the brave protesters that overturned the corrupt Mubarak regime nearly a year ago by conducting non-violent displays of solidarity across Egypt and the intrepid female-led movement for democracy in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, the Russian people - no matter how cold the weather - must now take to the streets in mass numbers to usher in a new era of political, economic and social democracy with complete transparency and full freedom of speech.
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141,000,000 citizens united against a corrupt elite simply cannot lose.
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(Photo: A Christmas Tree In Saint Petersburg, Russia)
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Key Sources
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1. For Gorbachev's take on Putin's 'castration of democracy,' see the following BBC NEWS article from 18 August: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14580709
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2. To read an article on the disparity of wealth in Russia, see the following 11 April 2011 article in Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/11/russia-rich-richer-poor-poorer
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3. To read on the limited freedom of the press in Russia, please click onto the following 18 December 2010 article in The Seattle Times (USA): http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013706866_russiamedia19.html?syndication=rss
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4. For the Amnesty International report on the Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, who have been designated political prisoners by the European Court of Human Rights, please click onto the following link: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/russian-businessmen-declared-prisoners-conscience-after-convictions-are-upheld-2011
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J Roquen

The Other Wealth Of Nations

2011-12-12T11:35:00.001-05:00

Two momentous events occurred in the year 1776. The first, of course, was the drafting of the American Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. In the words "We hold these truths to be self-evident, That all men are created equal, That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, That among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) launched a worldwide human rights revolution that continues to this very day.
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The second event was far less conspicuous. Adam Smith (1723-1790), a Scottish-born, Oxford-trained scholar, published The Wealth of Nations. In positing the existence of an 'invisible hand' - a hidden mechanism that regulated the economy whereby supply logically followed demand, Smith was arguing that consumers ultimately influence which goods are produced and how much they cost. If the public loves iPads, for example, they will buy them and create a need for a larger supply. In response, other computer companies will try to create a more advanced tablet-computer for a lower price in order to capture the market and reap large profits. To avoid losing its market share, Apple may lower the price of the iPad or develop a new, improved version to retain and perhaps expand its business. This inner logic between consumer choice, the market and technological innovation is Smith's 'invisible hand.'
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Since the market revolution of the 1830s and 1840s, the welfare of people inside nation-states has been largely discussed in terms of material progress. In 1934, Simon Kuznets (1901-1985), a brilliant American economist, revolutionized economic thinking amid the Great Depression. His econometric invention, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), was a tabulation of all the goods and services produced by a country within a particular timeframe. Anyone who has ever followed the news is aware of GDP and has some understanding of its usage in both economic and political terms. In posting a GDP of 9.1% in the third quarter of 2011, it can be immediately and correctly inferred that China's economy remains robust - both wealth and jobs are being created. Contrastingly, the US GDP increased at a sluggish 2.0% over the same period. American consumer demand and production were low, and the number of jobs created was limited.
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The problem? Over the past few decades, politicians, economists and other technocrats in the West have successfully made GDP an all-defining figure that represents the well-being of working people. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Does the wealth of a nation rest solely on the size and productivity of its factories? Why has our standard of living become synonymous with the amount of goods we can consume - rather than our health or the number of friends and family members who love us - for example? These questions lead to another and more fundamental question: What is real wealth? Rather than commodities and money, two renowned figures of history, who had little in common overall, mounted similar challenges to the conventional definition of wealth, and as a result, they became highly influential in their respective times.
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Wesley and Goldman: A Christian and an Atheist Redefine Wealth
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In 1774, John Wesley (1703-1791), the principal founder of the Methodist Church, produced a pamphlet entitled Thoughts Upon Slavery. In arguing against slavery and the slave trade, Wesley offered a business ethic that is badly needed today: 'Better no trade than trade procured by villainy. It is far better to have no wealth than to gain wealth at the expense of virtue.' This should be the mantra of every owner and executive around the world.
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Wesley then took his argument one step further. Consider his following idea on the real wealth of a nation,
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"Wealth is not necessary to the glory of any nation, but wisdom, virtue, justice, mercy, generosity, public spirit, love of country. These are necessary to the real glory of a nation, but an abundance of wealth is not."
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Clearly, Wesley had not only read the words of Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament but he also sought to apply them to and in society. Here was a true Christian. Yet, Christians have hardly been the only ones to challenge the notion that a nation be defined by its material wealth and power.
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Born in Kovno, Lithuania, Emma Goldman (1869-1940) emigrated to the United States in 1885. Over the next half century, she became a leading figure of atheism and anarchism. For her, religion was a myth and a tyranny of the mind, and the state, including democratic states, existed to exploit people through various forms of coercion and ultimately - violence. In her seminal essay "Anarchism: What It Really Stands For" (1911), Goldman, who railed against the nexus of big business and the state, proclaimed,
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"Real wealth consists in things of utility and beauty, in things that help create strong, beautiful bodies and surroundings inspiring to live in"
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Despite their ideological polarity, Wesley and Goldman were in fact operating off the same basic paradigm of decency, fairness, common sense and humanity. Real wealth consists of intangible things such as love, hope, friendship and knowledge. Can a nation with a high GDP and no freedom of speech such as China be said to have a truly high standard of living? According to Wesley, Goldman and an increasing number of people in the twenty-first century, the answer is apparent. Material production and consumption does not and should not be equated with that term.
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GNH Not GDP
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Jigme Singye Wangchuck (b. 1955) is not a household name throughout the world, but he ought to be. Shortly after taking power of the tiny South Asian nation of Bhutan in 1972, he decided to abandon GDP for a new metric - GNH or Gross National Happiness. Rather than defining a nation's wealth by its output of material goods, the Gross National Happiness (GNH) metric measures wealth qualitatively in terms of 'wellness' in seven categories: economic, environmental, physical, mental, workplace, social and political. As such, the quality of life for the average citizen is considered on many levels - inclusive of access to education, environmental conditions, the amount of daily stress (mental), the ability to secure living wages and affordable housing and the right of free speech and unencumbered political participation.
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As the democratic West was founded on "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," is it not time to do away with GDP - a production statistic that has little to do with the actual conditions of a person's life - and adopt GNH instead?
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Listen to Wesley, Goldman and Bhutan. A truly wealthy nation possesses compassion, virtue, respect and tolerance for others and has a reasonable balance between work and social life. The nation with the greatest wealth is one where its people have formed an enlightened community for the purpose of taking care of each other as one family.
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That is the happiness the world must strive for and ultimately achieve.
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(Image: An antique map of the world)
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J Roquen

Aung San Suu Kyi: The 'Mandela' Of Burma

2011-12-04T10:32:00.021-05:00

It has been a long, long time. Shortly after the National League for Democracy (NLD) swept parliamentary elections in Burma in 1990, the military quashed the results and began two more decades of rule through brute force. Last year, Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD, was released after having spent fifteen of the previous twenty-one years under house arrest.
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In all that time, Suu Kyi endured. Sound familiar? After being in prison since 1962 - the very year Burma fell into dictatorship, African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela (b. 1918), was finally freed by the racist apartheid government of South Africa in 1990. Less than four years later, the apartheid government was gone, and Mandela became the first elected president of a democratic South Africa.
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Neither Mandela nor Suu Kyi gave up - not for themselves nor for their people. Both of them courageously refused to become bitter or entertain ideas of revenge. They both steadfastly believed in a better future. As such, Suu Kyi can rightfully be called the 'Mandela' of Burma.
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When nearly a half a century of Burmese dictatorship ended last year (1962-2010), a democratic shock wave was sent through Asia. People living under tyrannical regimes in China, Vietnam and Laos have since been inspired by the downfall of the Burmese military junta and the resilience of Suu Kyi and the Burmese people.
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Indeed, it is only a matter of time before the world witnesses the removal of Mao Zedong's portrait from Tiananmen Square in Beijing - where thousands of peaceful protesters were killed or jailed in 1989. The former students who remain in jail will one day be free, and they will lead their nation of 1.3 billion people to liberty.
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The transition to democracy in Burma will be difficult. Segments of the military have yet to be reined in by the government. In some areas, the army still uses rape as a tool of coercion to maintain its power. Yet, Suu Kyi is indefatigable and plans to run in parliamentary elections next year. She will win, and she will again inspire subjugated peoples around the world to challenge the authority of their despotic rulers.
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Today's young women of world, whether in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Burma, Laos or elsewhere, are the future of the next twenty years. What will that future hold? It shall be one of expanding democracy and human rights - and a long list of oppressive regimes swept into the dustbin of history.
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It can be no other.
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(Photo: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embraces Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon, Burma on 2 December 2011. Click on to enlarge.)
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J Roquen

A True Christian

2011-11-27T01:30:00.002-05:00

In the New Testament of The Bible, one of the most interesting accounts of Jesus of Nazareth was his encounter with a wealthy, young man who sought eternal life. After telling Jesus that he had kept all the commandments, he asked, "What do I still lack?" An unexpected answer came in Jesus' reply, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come follow me." Realizing he had to sacrifice his riches, the lad left despondently. Jesus then reportedly turned to his disciples, who had witnessed the exchange, and said, "Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God." Jesus' followers were stunned. One of them asked - or perhaps they collectively asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus replied, "With God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:16-26).
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In our consumer-driven world, this message has been all but lost on most Christians. For one devoted Christian of the fourth century, however, materialism was the antithesis to a faithful life, and he considered Jesus' pronouncements against the accumulation of worldly goods as the central message of his teachings.
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Constantine (272-332AD) will always appear in history books as the Emperor to have legitimized Christianity in the Roman Empire. Yet one of his religious advisers, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (240-320AD), has been largely lost to history. This is regrettable. Not only was Lactantius one of the most consequential 'Church fathers' due to his theological influence but his major work, Divine Institutes (303-311), represents one of the finest analyses of power, wealth and class ever written. Rather than Karl Marx (1818-1883) or Max Weber (1864-1920), perhaps Lactantius - 1,500 years earlier - ought to be considered the 'father of sociology.' In order to appreciate the relevance of his thought to our time, several passages from Divine Institutes follow (in italicized bold print) with analysis.
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'The gifts of heaven they (the wealthy) made out to be their own - not for humanity's sake, for they had none of that, but to sweep up every means that could serve their acquisitive greed.'
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Lactantius establishes and denounces the self-interested mindset behind a ruling class of wealthy individuals (5-10% of the population) who unjustly came to power over society. His phraseology could not be more straight-forward. These avaricious usurpers of society, a society founded upon the principles of liberty and relative equality, have no humanity. They have become something other than human in making the pursuit of wealth both the means and the ends of their lives.
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'They had laws passed which represented as 'justice' the grossest inequities and injustices, to protect their rapacious practice and purpose against mass resistance.'
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Do you live in a country where the wealthy have disproportionate influence over lawmaking? Are laws made to serve the interests of the rich and powerful elites more than honest working men and women? In this passage (as in the last one), Lactantius reveals the process whereby a small cadre of wealthy people work together to design a system of laws to protect their interests. This, of course, is base corruption. Any action taken to challenge their oligarchical rule is dubbed 'radical' and banished from political discourse. Yet, what is 'radical?' Is it not radical to allow a small group of people to possess untold wealth while up to a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line - and the majority of the population works fifty, sixty and seventy hours a week just to eke out a living? If that is not radical, then nothing is radical.
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'And since there was actually no trace of justice in them (the wealthy, ruling class) - which would have been expressed in humanity, equality and compassion - they began to find satisfaction in arrogant and inegalitarian self-promotion, which put them on a higher rank than others, with retinues of staff, armed guards and distinguishing dress.'
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The sociologist Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) may have coined the phrase 'conspicuous consumption' in his well known book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), but he was certainly not the first one to have linked the relationship between wealth, consumption and claims to social status. Indeed, Lactantius clearly understood how the wealthy socially-construct their worlds by assigning social values to the acquisition of luxury goods and create degrees 'status' based on the number of servants or the kinds of fine accoutrements one wears in public. Note how Lactantius defines arrogance as being 'inegalitarian.'
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'To be rich is not a matter of having, but of using riches for the tasks of justice.'
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The words in red (having and using) were stressed by Lactantius. As well they should be - as the Christian definition of 'rich' can only be in terms of having the spirit of love and compassion toward all people. According to Jesus of Nazareth, this 'Holy Spirit' is God's gift and makes a faithful person, who is willing to sacrifice his or her possessions, far richer than a person who has material wealth but little empathy and no spirit of sacrifice. For those with means beyond what is necessary, it is his or her duty to put their means at the disposal of the less fortunate. That is the sign a true Christian - a follower of Jesus of Nazareth.
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In his 'Sermon on the Mount,' Jesus contrasted the two definitions of wealth quite clearly telling his followers, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven...For where your treasure is, your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19) He then added, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon (money)." (Matthew 6:24). For Jesus and Lactantius, there was no middle ground.
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A Legacy for Lactantius
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In 2011, revolts and revolutions swept across the Middle East and North Africa due to the tyranny of privileged elites. In London, thousands of young people rioted day-after-day due to being economically and socially marginalized. In Washington, DC, thousands sleep in homeless shelters every night, and hundreds sleep outside while only a few miles away in Georgetown - millionaires arrive home in BMWs and sit down to extravagant dinners in their multimillion dollar townhouses. Similar tales can be told in Russia, Brazil and throughout the world.
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Something is terribly wrong.
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Whether one is a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a religious person of any faith or an atheist, extreme wealth inequality is ethically indefensible. So, why is it tolerated across the globe? No one wants perfect equality. That dangerous experiment ended with the Soviet Union. What do most people want? Most people want what is needed. We all need a system that is fair, humane and compassionate - where no one is homeless and everyone is dignified with gainful employment. No more, no less.
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Is that possible? Whether God is Love or Love is God, anything is possible.
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But only if we act.
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(Image: Lactantius)
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Key Source
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Oliver O'Donovan and Joan Lockwood O'Donomvan eds. From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook of Christian Political Thought (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1999)
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J Roquen

1971: The End Of American Imagination

2011-11-23T12:08:00.002-05:00

Can you identify the musician who wrote these lyrics?
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Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world
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That was easy, right? Forty years ago, John Lennon released his landmark song and album by the same name Imagine. For Americans that year, it seemed as if politics, music and new intellectual currents were converging to remake society along more egalitarian lines. After Martin Luther King's March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, the urban riots of 1967, the 'Gestapo tactics' used by police on protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the tragic assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King in 1968 - along with the Tet Offensive (Vietnam) and the first moon landing in 1969, America ought to have been mentally and socially exhausted. Not so. A new, indefatigable generation of young people, known as 'Baby Boomers,' were tenacious and refused to give up their ideals of economic and social justice. Two members of the World War II generation figured into their continued campaign in 1971 - one of which was the unlikeliest of allies.
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Richard Nixon: The Last Liberal President
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Say the name 'Richard Nixon' and several things come to mind: Watergate, his resignation from the presidency (1974), his 'Checkers' speech (1952) and his uniquely off-putting demeanor. Of course, Nixon was no friend to the 60s movement. He was an ardent anti-communist and suspicious (if not paranoid) of hippies and protesters. During his time in office, the FBI spied on John Lennon and considered him something akin to an enemy of the state. Yet at the same time, Nixon was a pragmatic politician and certainly no libertarian.
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Similar to most Democrats, Nixon, as a political centrist, believed it was necessary for government to act as a broker between private interests and the public welfare. As such, Nixon not only created the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 but also instituted wage and price controls a year later to curb inflation and prevent working class Americans from sliding into the economic abyss. Undoubtedly, his decision stemmed from the efficacy and popularity of price controls set by the Office of Price Administration during the Second World War. Upon its abolition in 1947, prices skyrocketed, business profits soared and Americans (especially women) took to the streets to protest for its re-institution. That did not happen - not until twenty-four years later.
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To be sure, Nixon was dead set against the idea at first, but pressure from citizens and the media to rein in inflation forced him to rethink the idea. After he announced his plan to institute wage and price controls for a ninety-day period, most citizens applauded the move (in fact, a majority of Americans approved of wage-price controls until 1979) and the Dow Jones posted the largest single-day gain in its history the day after. Imagine - a measure to ensure economic security drove investors into the market.
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For all of his mistakes, Nixon placed the welfare of the people ahead of corporate profits with respect to the environment and the economy from 1970-1971. Meanwhile, a scholarly treatise with the banal title A Theory of Justice was being published by an unknown academic. It would create intellectual waves for the next twenty years.
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John Rawls: Liberty and Justice for All
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Born into a modest household in Baltimore, Maryland in 1921, John Rawls (1921-2002) was the shy, quiet and studious type. While he served in the Pacific in World War II, earned a PhD from Princeton in 1950 and would go on to become one of the pre-eminent philosophers of his time at Harvard University, Rawls wanted neither the accolades nor the spotlight. He was a true gentleman - humble and gracious.
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In his masterpiece A Theory of Justice (1971), Rawls began with a highly creative premise. What kind of societal values would men and women stress if they were to enter a world without any knowledge as to how their skills and knowledge would translate (if at all) into economic and social status within that society? In short, one could be poor, rich or somewhere in between. According to Rawls, most people in this scenario would opt for a base of security and construct a society whereby wealth was redistributed to ensure disadvantaged people did not starve and had every opportunity to rise toward the middle class. This ethical society would be created out of one of finest emotional-spiritual ideas humanity possesses - empathy, or the ability of a person to imagine himself or herself in the shoes of someone struggling with hardship - and helping them as needed. For Rawls, this was essentially the heart of ethics and seemingly - common sense.
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The End of American Imagination...and The Beginning
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Only two years later in 1973, the American economic juggernaut came to a halt. Since then, real wages as measured against prices have been largely stagnant. Union membership has decreased, and unemployment/underemployment have increased. The neoliberal economists from the Reagan-Thatcher era have ruled the day since 1980. Their drive toward deregulation, smaller government and blind faith in big business to create jobs has led to the highest income inequality (the top 10% of society earns 49.7% of total wages) and largest wealth inequality (the richest 1% of Americans possesses 34.6% of all wealth) since 1917 and the Great Depression respectively. The much touted 'market solutions' by business leaders and their politicians in tow have created disruption and needless suffering for tens of millions of people. Good jobs, ones that offer remunerative wages and health care benefits, are now out of reach for a staggering number of citizens in the current Great Recession.
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Meanwhile, the prophecy of New Deal economist John Kenneth Galbraith in his once widely-read book The Affluent Society (1958) has come true. In predicting that a consumer-based society devoid of any mechanism for redistribution would produce "A self-perpetuating margin of poverty at the very base of the income pyramid (that) goes largely unnoticed, because it is the fate of a voiceless minority," Galbraith was entirely correct. The United States, still the richest country in the world, contains 45 million people below the poverty line - 1 out of every 7 Americans .
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Although the 'Occupy' protesters have raised consciousness of income/wealth inequality in America and around the world, the current political climate is still hostile toward redistribution or of taking any interventionist measures on par or greater than Nixon's wage and price controls in 1971.
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To reclaim America, Americans need to reclaim their imaginations. When Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed to an audience at the Lincoln Memorial on 28 August 1963 "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, That all men are created equal,'" he was not speaking only of racial equality - he was also speaking of equal economic opportunity and security - as the campaign was entitled the 'March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.' Jobs and Freedom - they are inextricable in modern society. If a person is poor or even underemployed, that person is not truly free. King dared to imagine a more just world. As a result, millions of Americans followed his dream, and today, a black man sits in the White House not as a guest - but as the head of state.
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In order to halt the decline of wages, the erosion of affordable health care and the leveling of the middle class, Americans must re-imagine their society along more egalitarian lines with government acting as a check and regulator of corporate power - a power that increasingly measures the 'bottom line' in terms high profits and large dividend checks for shareholders instead of good wages for workers and a high quality of life for all citizens.
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To turn America into a more just society, Americans must first change the national conversation. All Americans must read, write and think about the hardships of their fellow citizens in a society where the content of one's character has become less valuable than the size of one's bank account. This must change.
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If Scandinavian countries can post annual increases in their GDPs with national health insurance systems, programs of free education through university and laws allowing for paid maternity leave for an extended period of time, then America can do the same.
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Americans need to be as economically flexible in their thinking as Nixon, as ethically-minded as Rawls and as empathic and hopeful as Lennon.
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In 1971, the year Imagine was released, John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to New York City - the heart of the American dream. And they imagined.
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You may say I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you will join us
and the world will live as one
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(Image: A watercolor portrait of John Rawls)
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(To listen to the song Imagine - celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2011 - please click onto the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b7qaSxuZUg)
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Key Sources
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Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Post war America (New York: Random house, 2003)
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Daniel T. Rodgers, Age of Fracture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011)
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The author is an American
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J Roquen

Europe 2012: 1847 All Over Again?

2011-11-17T00:15:00.003-05:00

After the European Revolutions of 1848, Tsar Nicholas I composed a letter to his counterpart in Britain. Surveying the new political landscape of Europe, he wrote Queen Victoria, 'What remains standing in Europe? Great Britain and Russia.' In a sudden flash, the elites had been overthrown by a Continental-wide uprising that transcended physical, national and ethnic boundaries. It was a truly humbling moment for the old order.
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Could a similar fate be headed for European elites in the near future? In the minds of most people, there exists a latent, optimistic tendency to believe that worst-case scenarios will be precluded one way or the other. Certainly, the leaders of Europe have now had quite a bit of experience in cobbling together various stop-gap measures to stanch the bleeding of EU finances. Yet for all the dealmaking, compromises and economic restructuring, the crisis has only deepened. While 2012 may not be 1848, it may turn out to be 1847. The parallels are disturbingly striking.
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Europe In 1847: Economic Antecedents to Collapse
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Every crisis has roots, and the Revolutions of 1848 are no exception. In fact, its economic roots are both literal and figurative. Beginning in 1845, Europe experienced a series of agricultural failures. Diminished yields of grain in Britain, France and elsewhere on the Continent, along with the devastating demise of the Irish potato crop a year later (which would drive thousands of malnourished Irish to America), resulted in a significant rise in food costs. As bread - the staple of European life - became more unaffordable for the lower classes, rumblings of unrest became palpable.
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Beyond the baleful effects for much of the populace, particularly the impecunious, the agricultural crisis bankrupted farmers and served to undermine the European-wide financial system. France, whose firms were losing ground due to falling prices from overproduction, simply could not absorb a downturn in two sectors of its economy. As one business folded after another, unemployment rose significantly.
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Europe in 1847: Political Antecedents to Collapse
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From Paris to Rome and on to Vienna, discontent with the elites stemmed from their inability to halt the economic decline, relieve the increasing misery of the masses and expand political representation.
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Prime Minister Francois Guizot (1787-1874), who had become a hero to Frenchmen for his courageous stand against the royal prerogatives of King Charles X, seemed to be living up to his famous quote 'Not to be a republican at 20 (years old) is proof of want of heart, to be one at 30 is proof of want of head.' Indeed, Guizot manipulated French politics toward his own ends and all but ignored the grim economic plight of his countrymen.
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To the East, the German states remained unable to attain any semblance of unity while larger numbers of peasants and craft-workers sank into destitution.
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In Italy and over the lands of the old Habsburg monarchy, the tides of nationalism swept over each political entity with passionate calls for complete unification in the former and ethnic 'self-determination' in the latter. Both aspirations went unfulfilled.
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Europe: 1847 and 2012
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As events on the Continent unfold, Europe seems to be headed for the same historical ground as 1847. In terms of economy, European businesses face a highly competitive environment amid the prospects of a significant fall-off in consumer spending. According to the best estimates, projected growth in the Euro-zone in 2012 will be a languid 0.5%. The unemployment rate, which currently stands at 9.9% in France, 5.9% in Germany, 12.5% in Portugal and 22.6% in Spain, will only increase if a double-dip recession - which many economists are now predicting - occurs over the next year.
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Similar to the chain reaction sparked by overproduction and the agricultural crisis of 1847, EU nations still struggling with high state debt and low market demand have created a systemic financial crisis. Due to the scale of their insolvency, neither Portugal, Ireland nor Greece can afford to borrow more money as prohibitive interest rates have been set by private lenders. Why loan money to a government with potentially few prospects of paying back the amount on time, late or at all?
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Italy, which has 360 billion Euros (or US$500 billion) of debt to reschedule in 2012, may not receive terms from its creditors. If Rome defaults, panic will set in and interest rates on the state debts of other EU nations may rise - causing a vicious cycle of fear and financial collapse.
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From these monetary crises, the institutional flaws and political fragility of the EU system have been exposed. The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which exists to shore up governments strapped for cash, simply does not have resources available to repair the financial damage across the Continent. As such, Germany has had to underwrite the debt of several EU nations in order to save both Europe and itself from a crash, and Greek leaders have reluctantly agreed to austerity measures in a program to achieve fiscal soundness.
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These temporary solutions have placed the EU on the same politically precarious path as 1847 Europe. By governing from the top-down rather than from the bottom-up and asking financially struggling workers to bear the burden of a financial morass that they neither asked for nor created, EU leaders in Brussels have raised intractable questions of sovereignty and legitimacy that may provoke wider stirrings of discontent in 2012 - on par with 1847.
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Avoiding 1848 in 2013
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In order to prevent 2013 from becoming a second coming of 1848 with mass unrest and long-term political fracture, EU leaders and European heads of state must begin governing according to the welfare of the people rather than attempting to fix the economic and financial crises through policy decisions devoid of empathy and consideration for the very element that makes Europe possible - its democratic participants known as citizens.
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Visionaries wanted. Old elites and technocrats need not apply.
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Key Source
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Charles Breunig, The Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1789-1850 (New York: WW Norton, 1977), 252-253.
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(Image: A five-franc coin issued in 1847 under the French monarchy of King Louis Phillipe. He was deposed in February 1848 after a financial meltdown and the political ineptitude demonstrated by his government)
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J Roquen

Elizabeth

2011-11-09T08:28:00.005-05:00

Elizabeth was an uncommon person in sixteenth century Europe. She thought for herself. After leaning how to read The Bible in Latin, she began to question the order.
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As a follower of Menno Simons (1496-1561), an Anabaptist and the founder of the Mennonite church, Elizabeth came to believe that faith in God was a matter of conscience and choice - and could not be rightly coerced. For her heretical views, she was tracked down in Holland and seized by Church officials. The following exchange between Elizabeth and her interrogators took place.
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Examiners: 'We understand that you are a teacher and have led many astray. We want you to know who your friends are.'
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Elizabeth: 'I am commanded to love the Lord my God and honor my parents. Therefore, I will not tell you who my parents are. That I suffer for Christ is damaging to my friends.'
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Examiners: 'We will let that rest for the present, but we want to know whom you have taught.'
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Elizabeth: 'No, my Lords, do not press me on this point. Ask me about my faith and I will answer you gladly.'
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Examiners: 'What do you mean by the house of the Lord? Don't you consider our church to be the house of the Lord?'
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Elizabeth: 'I do not, my Lords. For it is written, "You are the temple of the living God" (2 Corinthians 6:16). As God said, "I will dwell with you" (Leviticus 26:11).'
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Examiners: 'What do you think of our Mass?'
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Elizabeth: 'My Lords, I have no faith in your Mass but only that which is in the Word of God.'
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Examiners: 'What do you believe about the baptism of children, seeing that you have had yourself baptized again?'
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Elizabeth: 'No my Lords. I have not had myself baptized again. I have been baptized once on my faith, because it is written, "Baptism belongs to the believers."
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Examiners: 'Do priests have the power to forgive sins?'
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Elizabeth: 'No, my Lords. How should I believe that? I say that Christ is the only priest through whom sins are forgiven.'
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After Elizabeth denied the sacraments and rejected the Church as a legitimate intermediary between God and man, the examiners turned their recalcitrant subject over to an executioner. Screws were pierced into her fingers and thumbs - and then into her legs - to force her to recant her views and reveal her followers. She calmly and politely refused.
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On 27 March 1549, Elizabeth was sentenced to death by the Church, placed in a sack, and drowned.
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Her name was Elizabeth Dirks, and she is alive today. She is alive in every person who has the courage to speak truth to power.
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In promoting fairness, decency and human rights around the world - with hope and a vision of a future without gender-oppression, poverty and ignorance, we resurrect the spirit of Elizabeth - and discover the beauty and meaning of life.
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(For a more complete transcript of the interrogation of Elizabeth Dirks, see Roland H. Bainton, Women of the Reformation of Germany and Italy (1971), p. 145-149.)
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J Roquen

Seven Billion People: Consequences and Challenges

2011-11-02T11:13:00.030-04:00

Two days ago, it was announced that our world had reached a new milestone - 7 billion people. That is an unfathomable number. Of course 3 billion in 1959, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987 and 6 billion in 1999 were equally incomprehensible.
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In the year Napoleon assumed the title of Emperor (1804), the world population hit one billion. It then took another 123 years to climb to 2 billion in 1927. Recently, only twelve to fifteen years have been needed to add another billion human beings to the planet. While global fertility has declined since its peak from 1965-70, the world population has continued to expand due to technological advances in health care and food production. It is expected to peak at about 9 billion in 2050. Although the production of people is indeed slowing down, our numbers are placing an unprecedented stress on key resources.
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Water and Oil
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The planet is largely covered in water, yet only 3% is fresh, drinkable water. Currently, 1.2 billion people live in water scarcity, and many more people will experience severely limited water supplies in the future - and not only in developing countries. Over the past few years, the Colorado River in the US has struggled to keep up with demand for its fresh water from six regional states and parts of northern Mexico. As Americans continue to migrate to the region, water scarcity in the West and Southwest may become a recurrent theme.
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According to the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 'high water stress' will afflict nearly half of the world's population by 2030. Thus, policymakers will need to increasingly consult geologists and geographers in order to plan and manage growth.
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As for oil, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a 60% rise in prices over the next five years due to declining reserves. Considering that real wages have risen negligibly since 1973, an even larger number of people - including those in the middle class - may be priced out of owning a car. Hence, nations dependent on fossil fuels (i.e. the US) need to create a new transportation infrastructure. The development of a high-speed rail network, which could connect areas together locally, regionally and nationally (similar to Japan and Korea), would not only reduce oil dependency but also be far more environmentally sound.
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More People, More Poverty: Reconsiderations
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Despite the efforts of the G-8 and the United Nations over the last few decades, a large segment of the world population lives in privation. Nearly 1 billion people are malnourished, and hundreds of millions of others lack adequate shelter and access to health care. What is the answer?
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Aside from making substantial investments in food technology and medical treatment, the world needs to consider bringing back an idea popular in the 1960s and 1970s - Zero Population Growth. Limited resources may be the primary issue, but it is certainly not the only one. Greater numbers of people translate into even more overcrowded cities, more competition for fewer places at universities and for fewer well-paying jobs, more traffic jams, more packed trains and subways, more litter on streets, more waste for a diminishing number of landfills, more anonymity and loneliness and a larger possibility for resource wars over energy and water in the future.
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Perhaps our historical paradigm of growth needs to be reconsidered. Rather than continuing to industrialize and increase the world population, it may be time to de-industrialize and decrease our numbers. A world with fewer people, more opportunities, a higher regard for nature and mankind, and a more judicious use of natural resources can only add to human happiness.
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There is no time to wait.
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(Photo: An overcrowded train in New Delhi, India. Click on to enlarge. To view graph-related data on this article, please click onto kleostoday.tumblr.com to the right and check postings for 2 November)
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Key Source
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World Population To 2300 (New York: The United Nations, 2011) To read the report in a PDF file, please click onto the following link: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf
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J Roquen

To The Xinhai Revolution, 1796-1911

2011-10-28T11:38:00.000-04:00

When Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) became the first Provisional President of China in December 1911, it marked a watershed moment in the history of Asia. After 257 years, the Qing Dynasty was nearing its end. By revisiting its history, it is possible to not only gain insight into the Chinese past but also to shed light on how and why elitist-run states fall.
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The Rise and Early Trials of The Qing Dynasty
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Following in the footsteps of his father, who had expanded his influence from his power-base in modern northeastern China, Hong Taiji (1592-1643) waged a successful insurgency against the Ming Dynasty and died one year before the collapse of its 276-year reign. Before his death, Taiji had bequeathed a new name for his Jurchen people - the 'Manchu.' In 1644, the Manchu took power, and the Qing Dynasty was born.
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After slowly but surely consolidating their power over the next century and a half, the Qing faced their first significant domestic challenge in the White Lotus Rebellion of 1796. Similar to the Whiskey Rebellion in the United States (Pennsylvania) two years earlier, the cause of the Chinese uprising was also over taxes. Due to being subject to oppressive taxation by Manchu rulers in Beijing (the capital), near-indigent people living in mountainous areas joined together first in protest and subsequently in open revolt. Through military measures and strategic offers of amnesty to members of the rebellion, the Qing managed to divide, conquer and defeat the insurrection.
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In the early nineteenth century, several European nations were in the process of building global empires, and China was becoming an increasingly important trading partner for both Britain and France. A typical exchange involved Chinese silk, ceramics and tea for silver European currency. Approaching mid-century, however, London was becoming concerned with the amount of silver leaving the country in the form of hard coin - as silver was a key component of the British monetary system. To allow the treasury to retain its silver reserves, the British decided to pay for Chinese goods with a new form of money - opium. After a few years of permitting the new means of exchange, the Qing attempted to prohibit opium and the opium trade altogether in order to curb its ruinous effects on society in 1838. Almost immediately, Britain accused Beijing of reneging on trade agreements and declared war. When the First Opium War ended in 1842, the Qing Dynasty was essentially forced to surrender part of its sovereignty and allow the opium trade. Despite its defeat at the hands of the superior British navy, however, the Qing Dynasty managed to remain in power.
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Less than a decade later, the Qing entered the most traumatic era of its rule. In 1850, Hong Xiuquan, a 36-year old failed scholar and Christian convert, launched a rebellion composed of disaffected peoples in southeastern China. Under minority Manchu rule, the majority Han Chinese quickly flocked to Xiuquan (a Han). In only one year, Xiuquan, who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus of Nazareth, controlled a significant portion of southern China and proclaimed his new political entity the 'Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.' From its capital of Nanjing, Taiping leaders waged total war against the Qing, and Beijing responded in kind. For six years, an all-out conflict raged. Each side sought to destroy opposing forces and lay waste to the resources needed to carry out the war (i.e. crops for foodstuffs).
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In 1856, the Qing was beset with yet another crisis - simultaneous to the Taiping Rebellion. On the pretext of a wrongful seizure of a British-registered vessel, London again declared war (The Second Opium War) on the Qing in order to gain unlimited trade access for its merchants. For four years, the Qing endured a series of British attacks before succumbing to an Anglo-French invasion in 1860. In their victory, the British and the French secured full rights for Christians, the legalization of opium and commercial hegemony. One more humiliation for the Manchu rulers ensued. Knowing the Qing were virtually powerless to resist, Russian diplomats forced Beijing into handing over northern Manchuria. Amazingly, neither the civil war nor foreign invasions were able to topple the Manchu rulers. In an unexpected turn of events, a woman, who had been a concubine at the imperial court, made a sudden and improbable rise to power.
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The Second Ascendancy of The Qing Dynasty, 1861-1894
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When Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) became co-regent upon the death of Xianfeng Emperor in 1861, the armies of the Qing had been soundly defeated by Britain and France, and Hong Xiuquan, the Taiping leader, still controlled the southeast. Shrewdly, Cixi reached out to the disaffected Han Chinese. By appointing them to meaningful positions in the military and in the bureaucracy, she eliminated one of the reasons for their disaffection (a lack of economic and social mobility) and thus gained additional allies to mount a final campaign in 1864 to crush the Taiping Rebellion. The Dowager, however, was a conservative at heart, and she continuously opposed attempts to modernize China for much of the remainder of her regency.
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In order to defend the country from potential future attacks by European imperial powers, several Beijing officials promoted a 'Self-Strengthening Movement' whereby China would modernize its military along Western lines. This effort during the 1860s, however, proved to be wholly insufficient. After Meiji Japan (1868-1912), which had embarked on an ambitious model of Western reform to obviate Western commercial and military hegemony, defeated China over control of the Korean Peninsula in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), another attempt at reform by progressive-thinking Chinese officials occurred in 1898. Due to strong conservative opposition (including Cixi), the agenda of the 'Hundred Days Reform' -as it came to be termed - went unrealized.
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The Decline and Fall of The Qing, 1895-1911
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At the turn of the century, European imperialism was at its zenith. Africa had been carved up by the European powers at the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, London, Paris and Saint Petersburg had made inroads into the Middle East, and China remained powerless to European thrusts for influence over its people, territory and economy. After witnessing its homeland divided into 'spheres of influence,' a group of radicalized Chinese peasants, known as 'Boxers' (the Righteous Harmony Society), rose up in indignation and laid siege to Western emissaries in their diplomatic compounds over the summer of 1900. Day after day, people around the world awaited news on whether the trapped diplomats could survive being cut off from supplies and contact with the outside world. As Christians in China had been murdered by enraged peasants from time to time due to being culturally and economically threatened, a wholesale massacre was indeed possible. After nearly two months, the first multilateral military operation in history, consisting of eight nations - Japan, Russia, France, Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy and the United States - marched a combined expeditionary force to Beijing and rescued the diplomats. While the Qing were required to pay an indemnity rather than surrender territory for its role and inability to control the Boxers (the Dowager had secretly encouraged their revolt), the Manchu dynasty, which had recently been defeated by Japan for the first time in their history, was clearly losing its legitimacy in the eyes of the Chinese people.
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During the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), a number of revolutionaries founded the Revive China Society in Honolulu, Hawaii (USA). Its leader, Sun Yat-sen, was a 28 year-old medical doctor with a mission to end Qing rule. Other reform and revolutionary-minded organizations also blossomed - putting pressure on Beijing to enact meaningful reform. One year after the Boxer Rebellion in 1901, the Empress Dowager announced a relatively comprehensive reform plan which included the abolition of the imperial exams (the ones Taiping rebel-leader Hong Xiuquan failed - as ninety-five percent of all imperial exam-takers failed) and the creation of a national education system. In sending students overseas to study and experience living in more democratic and prosperous nations, the Qing unwittingly contributed to its downfall. Returning Chinese students from Europe and elsewhere had become more conscious of Qing corruption and repression. As a result, a new generation of middle-class intellectuals, along with large segment of discontented peasants, banded together under Sun Yat-sen's three principles - 'Nationalism, Democracy and Social Welfare' - to battle Qing forces for control of the nation.
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When the people of Wuchang (Hubei Province) discovered Qing plans to take over privately-held railways from Chinese investors in order to repay foreign debts - debts owed largely to the very European countries that had exacted reparations from Beijing after the Boxer Rebellion ten years earlier, a revolt ensued on 10 October 1911 in which the Qing were denounced for betraying the nation. The Xinhai Revolution had begun. Of all places, Sun Yat-sen, who was on a campaign to raise money for his cause, heard of the rebellion in Denver, Colorado (USA) - and quickly returned to China. Four short months later, the Qing Dynasty fell, and the imperial era of Chinese history, which had run from the founding of the Qin Dynasty in 221BC, came to a close after more than 2,000 years.
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The Xinhai Revolution and The Twenty-First Century
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The Qing Dynasty proved to be remarkably tenacious. It managed to survive numerous foreign invasions and domestic insurrections. Yet, the timelessly wise statement "Character is destiny," which was uttered by Heraclitus (535-475BC) in the days of Ancient Greece, sums up the fate of the Qing. Due to its character as an elite ruling class bent on maintaining power through repression, violence and intimidation, the Qing Dynasty had sown the seeds of its own destruction long before 1911. Although years, decades - or in the case of the Qing - centuries may be needed to overthrow tyrannical governments, courageous people, who stand united in pursuit of human rights, democracy and economic security for themselves and for future generations, ultimately receive justice and achieve victory in the end.
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(Photo: The flag of the Wuchang Uprising - 1911).
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J Roquen

The Scream, 1893-1910

2011-10-16T10:05:00.043-04:00

When the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) unveiled his masterpiece The Scream in 1893, it was at a time of seismic economic, social and intellectual upheaval. Western Civilization had entered a twenty-year identity crisis that would culminate in the First World War.
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Four years prior to The Scream, Europe had been beset by a severe economic downturn beginning with a recession in France. Shortly thereafter, markets declined in Germany and the UK. When the eminent banking house, Baring Brothers, ceased its operations due to being unable to call in sizable loans from Argentina, panic set in among capitalists around the world. Across the Atlantic Ocean, the United States plunged into its first depression in the same year The Scream was released. Dangerous speculation in the railroad industry caused a nearly wholesale financial collapse which resulted in six years (1893-1898) of massive unemployment and massive hardship for millions of Americans. Neither Europe nor the United States would rebound economically until the end of the century.
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By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, not only had Queen Victoria (1819-1901) died but God has also been proclaimed 'dead' in one form or another by the influential philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) in two of his books The Gay Science (1883) and Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885). When the noted intellectual Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) published The Quest for The Historical Jesus in 1906 (translated into English and published in 1910), he concluded his study with the following bombshell,
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"The Jesus of Nazareth who came forth publicly as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the Kingdom of God, who founded the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth and died to give his work final consecration, never existed. He is a figure designed by rationalism, endowed with life by liberalism, and clothed by modern theology in historical garb."
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From the evidence, Schweitzer had rendered a radical verdict on Jesus and Christianity. They were simply inventions by religious elites, and these historical and theological constructions had been reproduced through the centuries by the unquestioning faith of the masses. The Victorian order, which had been founded on the traditions and the ethics of Christianity, had been smashed - or at least severely diminished in the eyes of the literati and the middle classes. When the English novelist Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) proclaimed "On or about December 1910, human character changed" in 1924, she was probably not far off the mark in her analysis. An existential crisis had overspread much of the Atlantic world - a world increasingly defined by uncertainty and naked power as conceived by Social Darwinism (survival of the fittest).
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In the absence of God, what meaning could be constructed for mankind or any individual in a world of boom and bust economies, imperialism, war and political and social repression? From this transatlantic malaise, a new generation of talented writers, which included F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) and Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), emerged. In their fine works of literature, they attempted to locate the source of the collective 'scream' that had preceded and perhaps had partly caused the The Great War (1914-1918) - a holocaust that resulted in 15 million dead and another 20 million wounded.
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Between 1893-1910, the West underwent a traumatic search for a new identity. In the process, it ushered in a period of intense creativity and sowed the seeds of tragic destruction - en route to rediscovering rational thought and human rights.
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Beyond its captivating color and expressive style, Munch brilliantly captured the troubled zeitgeist of his time - and perhaps all time - making The Scream an enduring work of art - and of life.
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(Image: Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893. Click on to enlarge.)
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J Roquen

Les Deux Magots: A Perfect Autumn Coffee Break

2011-10-10T00:30:00.005-04:00

Is there anything that has not happened this year? Revolutions, uprisings, protests, wild currency fluctuations, increasing unemployment, financial crises, earthquakes, droughts, terrorism, skyrocketing consumer prices, corrosive government debt, contested elections, riots in London, strikes in France and a near nuclear disaster in Japan. And that is the short list. It does not include all of our personal ups and downs throughout the past nine months. Amazingly, there are still three more months of life to be lived before 2012. Feeling a bit out of breath from it all? Overworked, overtaxed and overtired? Well, perhaps it is time for an autumn coffee break - and not at the same ol' place this time.
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For a cup to remember, it will be necessary for you to make your way to Les Deux Magots in Paris, France. Established in 1875, the cafe was named after a popular play in the late nineteenth by the same name - 'The Two Oriental Figures of China'. As such, there are two porcelain Oriental figures mounted on the wall of the cafe to mark its titular origins.
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If you find yourself inspired to write a few lines of original poetry over a cafe creme (5,00E), do not be surprised. The cafe was haunted by several famous French poets including Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) and Stephane Mallarme (1842-1898). Then again, you might drift into a bit of cafe philosophizing. If that becomes the case, then you would be following in the footsteps of Les Deux Cafe's most famous patrons of the twentieth century - the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) and the feminist-philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) - Sartre's companion. While Hart Crane (1899-1932), the American novelist and poet, visited the cafe, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), an artist who requires no introduction, was also among its clientele.
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At 6 Place Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Les Deux Magots overlooks an ancient cathedral and sits at the heart of Paris - the 'City of Light' - making it the perfect place for a well-deserved autumn coffee break.
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(Photo: Les Deux Cafe: Paris, France. Click on to enlarge)
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To watch a short video on the cafe from the Les Deux Cafe website, please click onto the following link and then click on 'Video Visit': http://www.lesdeuxmagots.fr/infos.php
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To view additional photos of Les Deux Magots and Paris, please click onto kleostimes.tumblr.com to the right and check the postings for 10 October.
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J Roquen

The Objective Necessity Of Jane Addams

2011-10-06T11:30:00.001-04:00

In September 1889, a new institution appeared in the burgeoning city of Chicago. It was neither a bank nor a store. Nor was it a church or a hospital. It was a social settlement. But what exactly was a social settlement?
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By the end of the nineteenth century, wealth had become almost as polarized as in Britain. There was the affluent class - a small, elite group of wealthy individuals that owned most of everything and lacked nothing in terms of material goods or luxuries. The lower class, which consisted of the marginalized and the just outright poor. Their lot was feeding off the table scraps thrown to them by the two classes above. And then there was the immediate class above them - the middle class - where Jane Addams (1860-1935), a graduate of Rockford Seminary (a town west of Chicago), Addams became cognizant of the plight of the impecunious and the alienation between the classes. While the rich walled themselves off in extravagant homes and luxurious neighborhoods, the middle class tried to maintain its security in semi-respectable areas that afforded the basic amenities of modern life. And the destitute? They lived in deplorable conditions - overcrowded slums infested with rodents and broken dreams. Of course, they were the 'lucky ones.' The truly down and out slept outdoors. Many of them probably made it a nightly ritual to pray not to wake up the next morning. That did not occur much among the urban bourgeoisie.
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After meeting her lifelong companion, Ellen Gates Starr (1859-1940) in seminary school, Addams decided to take action to help the less fortunate by founding a social settlement - a place where the needy could receive both food, skills and free lectures on civic issues from a group of largely female university volunteers. Their institution, known as Hull House, became the most famous social settlement in the world. By 1912, it had helped thousands of European immigrants, many of which were Italian, to establish themselves in American society and countless others from various walks of life. What, however, underpinned Addams' philosophy of social action? In 1892, she published "The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements" to explain her approach to society and her worldview. From the following lines below, it will become quite clear that not only did Addams read the words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth correctly with regard to building a social ethic but that Addams' life and message are still relevant today.
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"That Christianity has to be revealed and embodied in the line of social progress is a corollary to the simple proposition that man's action is found in his social relationships in the way in which he connects with his fellows, that his motives for action are the zeal and affection with which he regards his fellows."
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Any cursory reading of the three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) in the New Testament demonstrates that Jesus of Nazareth did not intend to found a 'religion' per se. He believed God's work was in actively helping his struggling 'children'. According to Luke 6:20-21, Jesus stated, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled." As the same person who coined the expression "The last will be first, and the first will be last" (Matthew 20:16), it was the humble, the meek and the pure of heart that would receive God's favor. When a youth from the upper strata of society asked Jesus "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?," Jesus replied, "You lack one thing. Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me." (Mark 10:20-22). Not only did Jesus ask him to sacrifice his worldly possessions but the young man was also called to follow Jesus in taking social action in helping those in need. Hence, Jesus never intended to establish a belief system to simply help people cope with the world on an individual basis through individual prayer or church gatherings among people of the same economic and social class. Rather, believing in God required "taking up the cross" and finding the joy of life in helping those in need of help and bringing everyone - rich, poor and semi-affluent - into a single family and a single community of hope and security.
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"Democracy has made little attempt to assert itself in social affairs. We have refused to move beyond the position of its eighteenth century leaders, who believed that political equality alone would secure all good to all men."
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Unfortunately, the same can be said of the United States in 2011. The 45 million Americans living below the poverty line receive scant attention from the middle and upper classes. To be sure, there are millions of people who work professionally and millions more who volunteer to help out their fellow man, but the size and scope of entrenched poverty in the United States has never been addressed. A new stimulus package will do little for those who cannot read, write or have no skills in demand. Both political parties, Republican and Democrat, cater expressly to the middle class - and have been co-opted by the financial elites to one degree or another. As such, the plight of the homeless is nowhere on their agenda.
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"They (young people) feel a fatal want of harmony between their theory and their lives, a lack of coordination between thought and action. I think it is hard for us to realize how many are taking to the notion of human brotherhood, how eagerly they long to give tangible expression to the democratic ideal. These young men and women, longing to socialize their democracy, are animated by certain hopes."
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Addams could have included adults as well. Most people wish for a world of cooperation rather than cutthroat competition. Few people (if anyone) grow up hoping that society will maintain its rigid class system whereby a third of more the population is socially and economically excluded from having a dignified life. At the heart of our 'theories' and 'thoughts' is the idea of fairness, compassion and decency, but what does our profit-driven world teach - except stark individualism, live for yourself, do not talk to strangers, be fearful of the underclass, live to add another line on your CV and above all - attain status? A PhD, a Porsche, a bigger and better home in a smaller and more elite area, a 'higher' position in the company and a more refined circle of friends are constantly trumpeted by society as the path to happiness. Yet, what is genuine and rewarding about these things in comparison to helping another human being?
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Jane Addams: A Woman Relevant To The Twenty-First Century
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Interestingly, Jane Addams never became a Christian despite quoting the reputed words of Jesus of Nazareth throughout her life. This is instructive. One need not be a Christian to appreciate the message of Jesus. His message of hope and redemption for all men and women ought to inspire the people from the ultra-religious to the Enlightenment-based atheist. If the world has any hope in closing the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots,' we must put our highest principles and ideals into action. Otherwise, the story of human history will sadly go down as 'what could have been.'
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(Photo: Jane Addams upon her graduation).
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To read the "The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements," please click onto the following link:
http://www.h-net.org/~hst203/documents/addams.html
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J Roquen

Free Palestine, Free The World

2011-09-25T10:23:00.021-04:00

Throughout history, the ancient land of Palestine has been contested terrain due to economic, social and religious factors. Two thousand years ago, Rome was notably compelled to maintain two legions of soldiers in Palestine due to persistent conflicts - as opposed to only one in all of Spain. Since the creation of Israel in 1948, the United Nations, along with the United States and other nations, have tried and failed to negotiate an agreement allowing for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
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On 23 September, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered an address on the subject of Palestinian statehood that turned out to be one of the finest expressions of statesmanship in the twenty-first century. To the UN General Assembly, Abbas proclaimed,
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"I am here to say on behalf of the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization: We extend our hands to the Israeli government and the Israeli people for peace-making. I say to them - let us urgently build together a future for our children where they can enjoy freedom, security and prosperity. Let us build the bridges of dialogue instead of checkpoints and walls of separation, and build cooperative relations based on parity and equity between two neighboring States - Palestine and Israel - instead of policies of occupation, settlement, war and eliminating the other."
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Despite his plea for support, President Obama, along with several American public intellectuals, oppose the creation of a Palestinian state and characterize such a move as 'premature.' With all due respect to the US president and those who share this view, they are simply and utterly wrong.
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Consider the following position taken by Fareed Zakaria, an Indian-born, Harvard PhD who has a high-profile presence on CNN.com and a talk show on CNN TV. In a recent column on the front page of CNN.com, he wrote the following,
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"I oppose the Palestinian UN bid for practical reasons. This is not a time for romantic gestures. At the end of the day, there is only one way you're going to get a Palestinian state. And that's if the Israelis agree to it. They have the land; they have the guns; they have the money."
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It ought to be noted that Mr. Zakaria's 'practical' line of thinking is shared by the Obama administration and several governments in Europe. The validity of this 'practical' view can easily be tested at the bar of history. By this same logic, President Obama and Mr. Zakaria would have argued against Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and a majority of the colonists in their decision to declare independence in July 1776. Why? According to them, the Founding Fathers and the people of America ought to have first obtained permission from the British for their liberty - because the British 'had the land, had the guns and had the money.'
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Question: how many Americans today would take this view of their own history? Answer: none.
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Do not the enduring words of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence apply to the cause of the Palestinians in 2011 as well? Consider the reasoning behind the American Declaration of 1776,
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"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them (the people) under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
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Of course, the Americans in the era of Washington were never under 'absolute Despotism.' That was a rhetorical exaggeration. Yet, American rights had certainly been abridged. Comparatively, the Palestinians are far more oppressed today than the Americans were two centuries ago.
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A full one-third (nearly 2 million) of all Palestinians live in refugee camps. For those fortunate enough to maintain an independent residence in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip or East Jerusalem, their lives are economically and socially precarious. Aside from eking out a living inside an 'adjusted broad unemployment rate' of 49%, Palestinians are routinely denied access to quality health care due to the rigid controls placed on their movements by the Israelis. Due to the intractable questions of land rights and a dearth of jobs, 46% of Palestinians live below the poverty line. As a result of their politically-forced, economic deprivation, four out of every five Palestinians rely on charity.
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When asked to cite the cause of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, former US President Jimmy Carter, who brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel in 1978, did not hesitate saying, "Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement." He is right. Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has refused to permanently withdraw from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip despite UN resolutions demanding its exit. Over the past four decades, Israel has also allowed its citizens to settle in these areas in contravention of international law. There are now more than two hundred Jewish settlements on former Palestinian territory, and these settlements are connected by roads which are policed by Israeli forces - who do not allow Palestinians to travel over their own former lands.
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For the Israeli government, the retention of Palestinian land, the setting up of checkpoints to control the movement of Palestinians and the colonization of Palestinian land stands as part of their security measures to protect Israeli citizens. Of course, several groups of Palestinians have resorted to violence from time to time - and violence is never acceptable. However, are not these Israeli security measures, which deny Palestinians their right to basic human dignity, ultimately the very roots of insecurity for Israel?
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Was not Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) correct in his reply to a British official, "I beg you to accept that there is no people on Earth who would not prefer their own bad government to the good government of an alien power"? The Americans of 1776 certainly took this view. Was not Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) equally correct in writing, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed"?
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A great majority of people in Israel and the Palestinian Territories desire a future of two states - Israel and Palestine - working together to usher in a new era of peace, justice and hope.
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The people of Israel. The people of the Palestinian Territories. The people of the Middle East, and the people of the world - including President Obama - must now stand up to Free Palestine. Only when Palestine is free - will Israel be truly free.
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Free Palestine, Free Israel, Free The World!
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To view an excellent collection of recent photos of life in the Palestinian Territories published in The Guardian (UK), please click onto the following link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/gallery/2011/sep/17/palestinian-territories-levene#/?picture=379159701&index=0e
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Key Source
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To read the 2010 report on Palestine by the World Health Organization, please click onto the following link: http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NS/0/885BD85F892778F28525772700503A4B
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J Roquen

William Gowans, Bookseller

2011-09-18T10:14:00.033-04:00

William Gowans was a living , breathing young man in a living, breathing young city. After leaving his unexciting hometown of Fredonia, Indiana (USA) in 1825, he made his way to New York. Apparently, he arrived alone without knowing anyone. To survive, Gowans took any job available for an unskilled worker - stone polisher, newspaper folder, stevedore and gardener among others. When he landed a job at a bookstore, however, something changed. His passion for the printed word and entrepreneurial spirit opened up a vision for the future. He would sell books as an independent bookseller.
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Less than two years after coming to 'The Big Apple,' Gowans, who had persuaded a small shopowner to allow him to have bookshelves constructed on the outside of the store in exchange for monthly rent, was beginning to make inroads as a self-supporting businessman. Making money, however, was not the source of his new-found happiness. It was what he was selling that gave him the greatest satisfaction. In a letter to his father, Gowans wrote, "The first few books I sold gave me a sensation of Joy not in my power to describe." Beyond a mere commercial transaction, the young man from Indiana had discovered the heart of bookselling - helping someone acquire, apply and share knowledge.
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By the middle of the next decade, Gowans had become an owner and operator of a lucrative business selling books to an emerging middle class. His American dream had come true. While few (if any) booksellers aspired to his level of wealth, most of them possessed the same "Joy." Is not a day spent reading the poetry of (Charles) Baudelaire (1821-1867), the philosophy of (Baruch) Spinoza (1632-1677), the works of the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes (446-386BCE), the novels of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) and the historical scholarship of Eric Hobsbawm (b. 1917) better than a day devoted to sheer economic survival? For a true bookseller, there is one simple answer.
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Rather than heading to a bookshop for assistance in finding a particular title or asking for a book recommendation, an increasing number of people now search, purchase and read books online. The book, which has bound civilizations together for thousands of years, is rapidly disappearing - as is the bookseller.
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Yet, the bookseller of yesterday remains alive today - alive, remembering shelves that once contained the pages of lives lived - and lives being made. Between those shelves, the pages of life turned and still turn - for once a bookseller, always a bookseller.
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(Photo: The Astor House, New York City. Established as The Park Hotel on Broadway in June 1836, several of its guests probably visited William Gowans' bookshop. Click to enlarge.)
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Key Source
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Stuart M. Blumin, The Emergence of The Middle Class: Social Experience In The American City, 1760-1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
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J Roquen

How Not To Wake Up In The Ex-British Empire 2.0

2011-09-11T12:50:00.008-04:00

You are on a business trip or perhaps headed for a well-deserved vacation. After your flight lands forty-five minutes late, you run for what seems like miles to make your connecting flight. Arriving five minutes past the scheduled departure time, you discover the plane has taken off.
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Heading over the to the airline counter, the customer service representative informs you that the next and last flight to your destination has been cancelled. You will have to wait until tomorrow. How would you react in this situation? Would you become ostensibly angry or inwardly frustrated?
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Even if you could not get another flight on another airline that day, one thing is for sure - you would not have to sleep on the street. Yet, that is exactly how tens of millions of people sleep each and every night worldwide - including in nations of the ex-British Empire. Although Australia and Canada may be smaller in population than the United States and the United Kingdom, the amount of poverty is largely equal in terms of the percentage of people that neither have a place to live nor enough food to eat.
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Australia: Down and Out 'Down Under'
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Compared to the United States, the total number of inhabitants on the island-continent of Australia is less than one tenth of the American population (22 million/310 million). Nevertheless, 2.2 million Australians live in poverty, and more than 100,000 Australians are homeless. Beyond the sizable numbers of the poor, it is the makeup or who comprises the underclass that is truly disturbing.
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Almost 15% of the poor are children. While child poverty in Australia is not as high as in the United States (20%), it is far worse than Norway (3%). Even more troubling is the overall trend. The numbers of the indigent have only increased over the past two decades. While the percentage of destitute citizens was 7.6% in 1994, that figure rose to 9.9% ten years later and stands at 11.1% today. As in the US and the UK, non-Caucasians (people of color) are far more likely to be underprivileged due to socio-economic exclusion - as the legacy of structural racism still casts a shadow over the Western world.
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Although the unemployment rate is a relatively low 5.1%, that figure has increased recently. If the ranks of the underemployed are factored into the equation, the actual percentage is significantly higher.
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Rather than continuing to remain focused on the Prime Minister Gillard's carbon tax plan, it is time for middle and upper class Australians to raise the issues of poverty and unemployment/underemployment onto the national stage.
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Oh Canada: Time to 'Stand on Guard' For The Poor
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From Vancouver, British Columbia on the Pacific to Montreal, Quebec on the Atlantic, homelessness and poverty continue to plague a significant percentage of Canada's 35 million people. Similar to Australia, just over 10% (3.5 million) of the Canadian population is poor, and as many as 900,000 have no shelter. Canada also posts one of the highest rates of child poverty among developed countries with more than 600,000 children who suffer from want.
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Despite several years of economic growth in the 2000s, the Canadian middle class is losing ground, and more lives now teeter on the brink of poverty. While the unemployment rate has climbed to 7.3%, the annual inflation rate (2.7%) exceeds GDP growth (0.2% monthly/2.4% annually). In 2009, Canada set an alarming new domestic record. More Canadians lined up to receive handouts from food banks than at any time previously - almost 900,000 people.
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How great is the gulf between the rich and the poor in Canada? In a study completed by researchers at McMaster University on wealth and poverty in Hamilton, Ontario last year - the place where the university stands, they found that the wealthiest members of the city live twenty-one years longer than the poorest ones on average. If you are shocked that such a phenomenon could exist in a developed country, you are not alone. However, similar life-expectancy disparities exist between the rich and the poor in parts of all nations of the ex-British Empire.
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Wanted: A New Generation of Jack Laytons
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Unless you live in Canada, you have probably never heard of Jack Layton (1950-2011). Although he never became prime minister, Layton devoted his entire life to eradicating poverty by making it an issue in the classroom as a professor, in Toronto as a Toronto City Councilman and in the nation as a Member of Parliament and the leader of the New Democratic Party.
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Before passing away three weeks ago at age sixty-one from cancer, Layton wrote one last letter with the following exhortation, "There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to do our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure that no one is left behind."
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If poverty continues to be ignored as an issue in our communities and in our nations, it will continue to destroy the lives of more men, women and children. Are you ready to take a public stand against poverty?
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Whether you know it or not, people in the present and the future are counting on your leadership and compassion. Please do not let them down.
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Key Sources
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1) To read an article on poverty in Canada in The Economist (2010), please click onto the following link: http://www.economist.com/node/17581844
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2) For information on Canadian 'Food Insecurity' in Social Determinants of Health: The Canadian Facts, please click onto the following link: http://www.thecanadianfacts.org/The_Canadian_Facts.pdf
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3) To read a recent article on poverty (28 January 2011) in The Sydney Morning Herald, please click onto the following link: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/no-lies-no-inventions--poverty-in-australia-is-awfully-real-20110127-1a6yy.html
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4) To review an impressive collection of poverty statistics on poverty in Australia at thebigissue.org, please click onto the following link: http://www.thebigissue.org.au/Facts_Figures_Poverty_Homelessness_Australia.pdf
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(Photo: A homeless man asleep on a snowy street in Montreal, Canada)
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This article is dedicated to the memory of Jack Layton and the families of the victims of 9/11/2001.
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J Roquen

How Not To Wake Up In The Ex-British Empire 1.0

2011-09-04T12:02:00.007-04:00

The alarm rings. It is 6:00AM. Time to get up. From your bedroom, you walk to the shower. From the shower, it is downstairs to the kitchen for a small breakfast. You turn the TV and your laptop computer on to get the morning news and the weather before jumping into your car for another commute to work.
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Does this description at least partly describe a typical day in your life - excepting days off? If so, then consider yourself very fortunate. You are a member of the middle class. In every nation of the ex-British Empire, however, a significant number of people wake up to a completely different reality. For tens of millions of citizens of the United States and the United Kingdom, life has become an empty struggle - fraught with daily hardships, hopelessness and pure misery.
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The United Kingdom: God Save the Poor
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In a recent speech in Parliament, Prime Minister David Cameron ascribed the cause of the recent riots and looting to 'immorality.' When one leads a middle class life with unlimited access to education, jobs and opportunities for socio-economic advancement, it becomes all too easy to judge others from the lofty perch of status and relative wealth. While immorality certainly was a factor in the breakdown of law and order, was individual immorality the sole cause for every act of looting and violence?
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In terms of financial assets, the United Kingdom is the fourth wealthiest country in the world. Yet, nearly 14 million of its 62 million citizens (21-22%) were living in households under the income poverty line in 2009. Few gains have been made by the British underclass over the last two years, and signs point to a recent decline in their economic fortunes.
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In a report just issued last month (August 2011) by the Office of National Statistics, the data indicates that the ranks of the 'long-term unemployed' (more than six months) has spiked over the past few months. In July, the number of jobless benefits claims also markedly increased. A double-dip recession? For Britain and much of the ex-British Empire, the first recession has not ended. It is an economic downturn with two cycles: low and lower.
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What has happened to London? It has reverted to being a tale of two cities - one for the rich and one for the poor with fewer and fewer people in between with each passing year. Over the last decade, the wealthiest ten percent have seen their incomes rise dramatically. At the same time, the poorest ten percent have experienced a decline in wealth according to the authoritative study released by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (see below).
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As for racial exclusion in the UK, the bleak statistics speak for themselves. It is bad enough that 20% of 'white' Londoners live in poverty. For UK residents with darker skin color, their reality is even more appalling. Consider and compare the poverty rates for the following four ethnic groups in the UK: Black Caribbeans 30%, Black Africans 45%, Pakistanis 55% and Bangladeshis 65%.
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Mr. Prime Minister (Cameron), when you poured out your righteous indignation upon the looters and thieves engaged in acts of 'immorality,' why did you not consider the immoral socio-economic conditions that pushed at least a few of them over the abyss? When a person has been robbed of his or her dignity by being denied a job with a living wage, forced to live in dilapidated housing and refused access to an affordable education, an inner rage, born of desperation and pain, develops - and can push good people over the edge into committing acts of destruction that they would otherwise not consider. Does not history and common sense teach us that lesson?
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It seems two forms of immorality produced the recent London riots. One was from individuals who failed to redress their grievances in a peaceful and constructive manner by organizing a non-violent protest movement consistent with democratic principles. Over the long term, a campaign for economic justice offers the only effective solution. The other form of immorality - and the most significant one - is the socio-economic composition of the state. If one lacks a 'marketable skill' or is not Caucasian, does that individual deserve to be reduced to beggary? Of course not. That would be immoral. Yet, that is the degraded life twenty percent of citizens of the UK wake up to everyday. The young people that make up the gangs of London, of which there are many non-white members, did not grow up hoping to join a gang, Mr. Prime Minister. They were socialized into that world from the conditions of social, racial and economic exclusion. As such, they know only one value - survival. For more than a few of the perpetrators, the state, by allowing such great suffering and socio-economic exclusion, is by definition 'immoral.'
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If Britons refuse to debate these heartbreaking realities of wealth inequality and socio-economic exclusion - and if the upper and middle classes continue to ignore the suffering of so many, then only God can save the poor. And there is nothing more 'radical' than that.
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The USA: 'Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness' Denied
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More than two centuries after Thomas Jefferson wrote "all men are created equal" in a document that gave all citizens a right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," his American dream remains unfulfilled.
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In the wealthiest nation in the world, thirteen to seventeen percent of the population of the United States (approximately 45 million of a total population of 300 million) lives in poverty. From this figure, it is then not surprising that 44.2 million Americans - or 1 out of every 7 - survives on food stamps (a government-sponsored rations program for the indigent).
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Economically speaking, some people are clearly more equal than others. While the median household income for 'whites' averages $113,149, Hispanics and African-Americans exist on $6,325 and $5,677 respectively. A post-racial America? In terms of basic economics, the legacy of systematic racial exclusion from meaningful work and educational opportunities still tilts the American landscape against non-white minorities. This is not to suggest that the poor are all non-white in America. As poverty does not discriminate, a considerable number of 'white' Americans of European heritage are among the poor as well.
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The Great Recession from 2007 to the present has only exacerbated wealth inequality and the daily numbers of the poor, the unemployed and the chronically jobless. Although the national unemployment rate is 9.2%, the actual figure is much higher. Those who have stopped looking for work (due to the absence of jobs) and the underemployed are not accounted for in the data compiled by the Bureau of Labor.
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Several states and cities have considerably higher unemployment rates than the national average. For Californians, their unemployment rate is 12.0%. In Michigan, it is 10.9%, and residents of the Detroit area are experiencing unemployment at Great Depression levels where 15.7% live without work.
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The American dream is becoming a dream denied to an entire generation of people outside the national conversation. In the three presidential debates between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain in 2008 - a year of severe economic downturn and despair, how many times were the poor or the subject of poverty mentioned? No need to count. The answer is zero. If America wishes to live up to its ideals and inspire other nations to adopt democracy, then it must begin a substantive national debate on how to end a scourge that breaks the hearts and wrecks the lives of millions of people everyday - the collective scourge of poverty, unemployment and underemployment.
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The UK and the US: Two Nations In Need Of Repair
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Is there any good news? Yes. As US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) quipped several times, man-made economic problems can be solved by man. There is absolutely no reason why citizens in two of the most democratically accomplished and wealthiest nations in the world cannot end poverty on both sides of the Atlantic. All it takes is for a small group of people to start an energetic political movement that calls for an open and honest dialogue on these hard facts. When the issues of poverty, unemployment and the nature of work then become the key components of a nation's politics, then substantive debates will occur, solutions will be offered, one compassionate policy will beget another and soon - the number of people living lives of despair will begin to diminish. Finally, a light will appear at the end of the tunnel for the virtual eradication of poverty.
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If slavery can be ended and women's rights achieved by relentless political action, then poverty can be ended in the same manner. For the sake of humanity, our societies and our own character, we cannot fail.
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(Photo: A homeless woman in London, 2011)
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Key Recommendations and Sources
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1. To read a report on poverty and food stamps in the US by the Wall Street Journal, please click onto the following link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/05/03/about-1-in-7-americans-receive-food-stamps/
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2. To read a recent report on the UK economy in BBC NEWS, please click onto the following link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117
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3. To read an authoritative report on poverty in the UK "Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion, 2010," please click onto the following link: http://www.poverty.org.uk/reports/mpse%202010.pdf
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4. To read a report on poverty in the UK by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2007), please click onto the following link: http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/2057.pdf
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5. To review the varying unemployment rates in the US in a report compiled by the Bureau of Labor, please click onto the following link: http://www.bls.gov/bls/unemployment.htm
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Next Week: The second installment in this series will cover poverty in Canada and Australia.
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J Roquen

The Struggle: Ancient Rome And Today

2011-08-28T06:00:00.016-04:00

As King of Rome, Servius Tullius (578-535BC) launched several reforms, and none were more significant than the establishment of the comitia centuriata. From this elevated political branch, policy was to be decided by elected officials on the basis of voting blocs. Due to being responsible for defending the state, preponderant representation was held by patricians - a relatively small group of wealthy landowners - over the largely poor and landless plebeians. This political and economic disparity, which had existed prior to the accession of Tullius, set the stage for a two and a half century clash between the oppressed people of Rome and the ruling elite - one that came to be called 'The Struggle of the Orders.'
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In 494BC, the alienated populace made a dramatic, collective decision. They went on strike, and Rome came to a standstill. The patricians suddenly found themselves without an army to take the field or workers to produce goods and deliver services. As a result, the patricians had to concede to several plebeian demands over the course of time. Interestingly, one legislative victory, lex Canuleia, was purely social in nature. This law, promulgated in 445BC, permitted patricians and plebeians to intermarry. Hence, marrying someone outside of one's 'class' was de-stigmatized.
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More significantly, plebeians were granted meaningful political representation. In being able to elect tribunes, they possessed a new and powerful voice to challenge the oligarchical interests of the Senate. Tribunes were also able to check biased and unjust rulings by patrician magistrates and make the process of law more transparent to the general public. By the end of the fifth century BC, the patricians no longer held all the reins of government.
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Over the next one hundred years, the Roman people (the plebeians) continued to fight for equal rights under the law and for economic reform. By 287BC, they emerged victorious after centuries of sacrifice, negotiation and protest by several generations of people determined to leave a more just and hopeful world to their children.
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The Struggle of the Orders, 2011
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While 'The Struggle of the Orders' in ancient Rome may have officially ended in the early third century BC, the struggle for economic, social and political equality has continued unabated for the last two thousand years. In 2011, more than one billion people, one out of every six living human beings, live in poverty. Despite possessing unprecedented scales of wealth, nations of 'The West' (including Japan and South Korea) have considerably large numbers of working poor, poor and homeless people who have all but been left out of the political process. Where are their voices in the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Italy among other countries?
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In the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, it is time for The West to have an honest conversation about the broken world economy and the devastation it has wrought upon the lives of so many. If people in the Middle East and North Africa can face down ruthless dictators, then there is no excuse for citizens of Western nations not to stand up for a more fair and just system of political economy.
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Until every person is afforded the same opportunity to participate equally in society, the struggle must go on.
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(Photo: Remains of three temples in Rome from the third century BC)
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Next Week: The first installment of a two part series examining chronic joblessness, underemployment and poverty in six nations of the former British Empire.
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J Roquen

One Text, Five Girls Lost Forever

2011-08-21T12:24:00.051-04:00

In May 2011, five young women ought to have taken part in one of the happiest days of their lives.
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You can easily imagine the scene. Hundreds of parents, relatives and friends pack an area around a stage to witness a college graduation. For the mothers and fathers of the graduates, the day is a crowning achievement - after devoting more than twenty years to raising a person of intelligence, compassion and character. Mission accomplished. Their sons and daughters have met or exceeded their expectations in every way possible. It is a day of anticipation. It is a day of transition. It is a day of joy.
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As the graduates grasp their diplomas in their matching caps and gowns, loud cheers from loved ones and roars of applause can be heard from the audience. Pictures are taken, handshakes and hugs are given and hopes for a bright future are raised.
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For Bailey E. Goodman, Meredith McClure, Sara Monnat, Hannah Congdon (pictured) and Katherine Shirley of Fairport, New York (near Rochester), that day did not come in May.
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And it never will.
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Only a few days after graduating from high school in 2007, Bailey, Meredith, Sara, Hannah and Katherine got into an SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) and headed for a cottage, owned by one of their parents, to spend some time together. They were the best of friends.
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In another car behind them, four additional friends followed en route to the cottage. What they witnessed that day will haunt them for the rest of their lives. The SUV suddenly swerved into the opposite lane and took a direct hit from a tractor-trailer. Due to the force of the impact, the fuel lines of one or both vehicles broke causing an explosion.
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All five girls, Bailey, Meredith, Sara, Hannah and Katherine, died in the flames.
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Possible Cause of Death: Texting-While-Driving
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In the police investigation and report that followed, texting-while-driving was cited as a possible cause for the SUV to have moved into the opposite lane - thus causing the collision. It is quite imaginable that a person would text while driving. It happens all the time, and as a result - people are injured or killed everyday around the world.
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The shocking statistics speak for themselves. In a 2010 study, it was estimated that one out of every four car crashes in the United States was due to cell phone usage. While 16,000 Americans died on the road in texting-while-driving crashes between 2002-2007, cell phones are responsible for 1.6 million accidents in the US every year. Research at the University of Utah has concluded that use of cell phones to talk by drivers increase the likelihood of accidents by 400%. As for texting-while-driving, the risk of an accident climbs 800%.
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This is not just an American problem. It is an international epidemic.
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The World Health Organization estimates that 1.2 million people are killed worldwide from car crashes annually. If distracted driving due to cell phone usage (talking or texting) is the cause for 25% of that number, then 300,000 people are losing their lives needlessly every single year worldwide.
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Five Reasons to Stop Using Cell Phones While Driving
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Think of the families and friends of those girls. Think of their anguish, their sleepless nights and their unrelenting emotional pain. They will never see their daughters again. They are lost forever.
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After this tragedy and countless others of similar circumstances, what ought you do?
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First, you can either stop or never start the habit of using your cell phone while driving. Second, if you have children of driving age, you can make sure - as a responsible parent - to instruct them that using a cell phone while driving is dangerous and ought never be done.
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In talking with your son or daughter on the risks of distracted driving, you could cite statistics, or you could tell a heartbreaking story that begins...
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"In May 2011, five young women - Bailey E. Goodman, Meredith McClure, Sara Monnat, Hannah Congdon and Katherine Shirley - ought to have taken part in one of the happiest days of their lives."
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(Photo: Hannah Congdon - b. 1989, d. 2007)
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To see photos of all five girls killed in the tragic accident outside of Rochester, NY, please click onto kleostimes.tumblr.com to the right and check the posts for 21 August
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J Roquen

Calonne: An Economic Savior Crucified

2011-08-15T08:34:00.036-04:00

After the spending vast sums of money to fight Britain in the Seven Years War (1754-1763) and in the American Revolution from 1778-1783, France was broke. An enormous debt hung over the French monarchy like the Sword of Damocles. In the year of George Washington's historic victory at Yorktown, Virginia (1781) over General Charles Cornwallis, Jacques Necker (1732-1804), the Finance Minister, published a shocking account of the King's finances. Rather than war expenditures, it was the amount of money being paid to the nobles in the form of pensions that outraged the overworked, overtaxed and impecunious public. As payment on the interest of loans took up more and more of the budget, it became clear that only a new, comprehensive economic program could avert a complete financial meltdown. Consequently, any serious plan would have to end the state of extreme inequality by challenging the privileges of the parasitical elites.
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Although the Swiss-born Necker was hailed as a financial genius, his accounting figures for government expenses were dubious and anything but transparent. For every extravagant expense and figure of bad economy revealed in his ledgers, Necker concealed five others. How could France have fought two wars without tax increases and come out with a surplus in the treasury? A simple short answer existed. It was not possible. Necker's figures were fabrications. Upon stepping down from the Finance Ministry in November 1783, his successor, Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802) arrived to find a staggering shortfall of approximately 125 million livres. Undaunted, Calonne went to work.
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Calonne's Financial Plan for Recovery
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A sound financial plan cannot be hatched overnight. In order to draw up a new system of finance, the economy must be deconstructed, analyzed and fitted back together in the shape of a more just, vibrant and stable model. One essential measure was needed to buy time, and Calonne followed his predecessor in requesting a new round of loans (i.e. raising the debt-ceiling) to keep France solvent prior to financial restructuring. As France had always enjoyed a high-reputation among the moneyed elites across Europe for paying back its loans with interest, bankers did not hesitate to extend new loans. As they were confident that Calonne and the King were serious about putting their financial house in order, France's credit was considered solid.
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After more than twenty-four months in office, Calonne finally presented his financial reform program to the King on 20 August 1786. It was worth the wait. His plan contained several major reform elements - all of which had immense potential to revive the stagnant economy and erase the debt.
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First: To increase liquidity or the ability to pay down the short-term debts, he wanted to restructure the short-term loans to be paid over twenty years instead of the scheduled ten and introduce new taxes on stamps to raise revenue and take the pressure off the treasury. Profligate government spending would be slashed as well. This was aimed not at entitlements for the citizens of France, who had none, but at the entitlements of the rich - the nobles receiving special payouts in pensions for their loyalty to the King.
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Second: Calonne argued for tax reform. Similar to the modern idea of 'closing tax loopholes' for the wealthy, he proposed a new tax on landowners with no exemptions. As only a noble or other person of some wealth could own land in France (a small percentage indeed), this measure was also aimed at the oligarchic owners of the country as well.
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Third: Rather than continuing to tax the agricultural sector in coin, Calonne asked for a new and less burdensome tax in kind. Money was a scarce commodity to French laborers. Hence, the government would be able to collect far more revenue by taking a reasonable share of grain from its farmers and re-selling it on the open market for a profit. Calonne further stipulated that the tax in kind allow for variations of productive capacity. In times of abundant harvests, the government would be justified in taking a larger share of grain. During years of poor harvests, the amount taxed in kind would be reduced accordingly. Ultimately, this was a progressive tax system that aimed to limit the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' and ease the burden on struggling farmers - the backbone of the French economy.
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Fourth: In order to turn members of the petty producers into productive, tax-paying citizens, the Finance Minister proposed the creation of new local assemblies to impose the new land tax accurately, oversee public works programs and dole out relief to the indigent.
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While his plan also called for the sale of church lands, a reduction or abolition of customs duties to spur trade and convening a National Assembly, the above four points spell out the crux of his program - one designed to empower the struggling many and penalize the unproductive, avaricious few.
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History: The Future of the World Economy
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Do you remember when critics blasted President George W. Bush for taking the United States into two wars across the globe (Afghanistan and Iraq) and expanding the size of the federal government while cutting taxes - especially on the wealthy - at the same time? Their criticism was on the mark. The Bush administration had committed the same error as Necker and the French monarchy in the 1780s. Expenditures outstripped revenues, and both Necker's successor (Calonne) and Bush's successor (Obama) inherited enormous debt burdens and ominous fiscal crises. When Calonne's reforms were defeated by the privileged elites, France plunged into a deeper economic morass. He was crucified by the vested interests and forced to leave government. As a result, the rich became richer. The poor became poorer, and a toxic combination of an increasing population and bad harvests incited hungry people to riot in the streets at their unjust society. In the absence of any meaningful reform, the citizens of France rose up on 14 July 1789 and overthrew the corrupt order and announced a new nation conceived on the principles of liberty and equality.
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Recently, the President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, warned that the world economy was entering "a new danger zone." He is right. The Great Recession of 2007 - present may indeed become a Great Depression unless governments in North America, Europe and Asia create and implement comprehensive economic programs to reduce deficits by uplifting the struggling middle and lower classes with progressive tax reforms based on fairness - thus redressing the sizable income disparities around the globe with higher taxes on the wealthiest citizens and corporations - and using that money to invest in public works projects and other stimulative programs.
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In Switzerland, the richest 10% own 71.3% of all national financial assets, and the same top financial tier (10%) in America owns 69.8% of all the wealth in the US. Indonesia, Canada, India and Norway currently operate in national economies that allow their richest 10% to possess more than 50% of all national wealth. Not far behind, the wealthiest 10% of citizens in South Korea, Spain and China control more than 40% their respective wealth.
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Extreme wealth inequality is not only unethical but also financially ruinous. That was Calonne's genius. He recognized that recovery required a broad transfer of wealth from the financial oligarchs to the state. As the masses became richer from state investment (public works) and a lighter tax burden, they would be able to pay more in tax in the long-term. That tax money would support the state in paying down the debt and make France a more stable nation. The rich would still be rich - just not as rich.
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If governments fail to follow in the footsteps of Calonne by reforming their economies on the basis of a more equal distribution of wealth and making larger investments in its struggling citizens (now in the majority), then years of suffering lie ahead for hundred of millions of people worldwide.
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The time to learn from history is now.
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(Picture: Charles Alexandre de Calonne)
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To read a New York Times article on the study of income inequality around the world conducted by the United Nations University, please click onto the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/business/worldbusiness/06wealth.html
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Key Sources and Recommendations
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James B. Collins, The Ancien Regime and The French Revolution (Toronto: Thomson, 2002).
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A. Goodwin, The French Revolution (London: Hutchinson, 1953).
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Eduardo Porter, "Study Finds Wealth Equality Is Widening Worldwide" New York Times, 6 December 2006. See link above.
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J Roquen

A Syrian Change We Can Believe In

2011-08-12T07:49:00.015-04:00

Inside the Obama administration, a debate has emerged on if and when the United States ought to officially call for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to step down from power. President Obama, a supreme rhetorician and one of the most accomplished public speakers of his time, has not only been unusually reticent but also out-of-step with a worldwide movement toward democracy that he in part inspired over the course of his historic 2008 campaign for the White House.
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In the case of Assad, both the US and Europe have apparently decided to place strategic considerations before the human rights. Rather than demand Assad's resignation hours after his despotic regime first began firing live ammunition into crowds of unarmed, peaceful protesters, Obama and his advisers have offered only criticism.
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Since Syrians bravely began challenging their illegitimate government - one that has used intimidation and torture to remain in power since the days of Hafez Al-Assad (Bashar's father, 1930-2000) - more than 2,000 people have been murdered by Syrian security forces in brazen attacks on public gatherings. As young, politically-conscious women have been at the forefront of these courageous expressions of hope and change, they have suffered and died disproportionately from the crackdown on dissent.
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Three and a half years ago, the entire world embraced Barack Obama, a little-known junior US Senator from the state of Illinois, for his ability to clarify the issues of the day and rouse people to seek greater justice in the world. It was he who stated, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." The Syrian people have clearly spoken. They want to rid their country of its cruel dictatorship and usher in a new age of democracy.
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There is nothing to debate. Although woefully late, President Obama and European heads of state must immediately denounce the Syrian government, call for Assad's resignation and ask the International Criminal Court in The Hague to indict Assad and his henchmen for crimes against humanity. Anything less would be unethical and a rank form of hypocrisy.
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Millions and millions of people are standing up for change from Lisbon to Damascus. Why do you hesitate to stand with them, Mr. President?
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(Photo: Desperate Syrians pose a sign asking for UN intervention)
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J Roquen

America's Well-Earned Downgrade

2011-08-08T12:40:00.003-04:00

Here is the scenario. You are a college student at one of the most prestigious universities in America - Harvard, Yale, Stanford or other comparable institution of higher learning. In your entire academic life since grade school, you have posted an impressive record of straight 'A's on your tests, papers and report cards. Right now, the professor is passing back last week's challenging history assignment, but not a thought passes your mind as to the result. You are certain it will be another 'A'.
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Your name is called. You pick up your bag and head for the door. As you exit, the professor's arm extends with the paper. You take it. Once through the threshold, the mark, etched in red pen, seems to hover above the page. It is something you have never seen before - a 'B'.
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A few seconds of disbelief turns into frustration, and frustration leads to a reflexive e-mail to the professor to set up a time to discuss 'the error.' During the meeting, the professor makes three salient and irrefutable points. Unlike the students receiving 'A's, your essay 1) contained only one primary source (the 'A' students had at least two), 2) lacked analytical depth and 3) had several syntactical errors in sentence construction.
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The professor, who has maintained his or her equanimity and tried to reassure you that an A- is still within range, is a million miles away. You have not heard a word of the professor's sound judgment. Feeling the electricity of anger run down your spine, you abruptly excuse yourself by saying 'Thank you for your time' and dash out of the office. The grade is not changing. An A-? It is beyond your comprehension. Running into a classmate on the walk back to the dormitory, he asks your grade. You confess to receiving a 'B', and then exclaim, "The professor made a 'terrible judgment.'"
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Those were the words ('terrible judgment') that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (b. 1961) used to describe the US credit-rating downgrade by Standard & Poor's (S&P) credit-rating agency. Rather than face the facts, accept criticism and offer a bit of humility, Geithner and other officials in the US government have instead exhibited the behavior of an overconfident and self-congratulatory college student.
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From AAA to AA+: A Sound Judgment
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Geithner has been repeatedly hailed as an indispensable financial genius. Apparently however, he and others in the US government are incapable of seeing the state of American finances and the American economy for what they truly are - a current debacle and an utter disaster in the making.
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Despite the eleventh-hour agreement by the US Congress to raise the debt-ceiling and cut $2.1-2.4 trillion over the next decade, S&P still downgraded America's credit rating. Why? There are four compelling (and distressing) pieces of data behind their decision.
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1) Irrespective of the debt-deal, the amount of US debt could exceed the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP - the amount of assessed wealth a nation produces) by 1 January 2012 - $15.5 trillion debt/$15.0 trillion GDP. Even more disconcerting is the general, long-term debt/GDP ratio over the next ten years. At best, conservative estimates place the 'net general government debt' at 74% of the GDP at the end of the year. According to S&P, the US debt will jump to 79% of the GDP in 2015 and 85% of the GDP in 2021 if the US government remains on its current fiscal course.
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2) The US economy is once again in decline. A few weeks ago, the GDP for the first quarter of 2011 was recalculated and revised down from a sluggish 1.9% to an anemic 0.4% growth. Since April, job growth has been limited, and job cuts have occurred in sectors of the economy once thought to be immune from the recession. Lockheed Martin, Cisco Systems and giant pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. have all announced layoffs recently. As for the official 9.2% unemployment rate, that percentage does not reflect millions of Americans who have all but given up looking for work and millions more with jobs that pay a paltry $8-12 per hour - the underemployed.
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3) Entitlement programs need to be recalibrated. As the baby-boom generation, the largest segment of the population, begins to retire, the US Treasury will be increasingly strained over the next twenty-five years to make Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments. The retirement system simply does not reflect demographic reality. If life expectancy were still 68.0 years as it was in 1950, these programs would be sustainable. Yet, the average life-span is now 79.9 years, and Congress' failure to undertake a single step in the direction of common-sensical reform rightly alarmed analysts at S&P.
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4) Tea-Party conservatives in the House of Representatives, who ideologically oppose any tax increases whatsoever, have thrown the government into a revenue crisis. While their staunch opposition to additional taxes on the middle class is understandable, why do they insist on protecting the wealthiest citizens from paying a higher tax percentage - especially in light of the fact that the richest Americans have only become richer over the last decade? In the January/February issue of Foreign Affairs, one of the most respected journals in the world, Robert C. Lieberman, a professor of political science and public affairs at Columbia University, identified the crux of America's current financial woes in the following factual analysis:
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"And yet a curious thing has happened in the midst of all this (economic) misery. The wealthiest Americans, among them presumably the very titans of global finance whose misadventures brought about the financial meltdown, got richer. And not just a little bit richer; a lot richer. In 2009, the average income of the top five percent of earners went up, while on average everyone else's income went down. This was not an anomaly but rather a continuation of a 40-year trend of ballooning incomes at the very top and stagnant incomes in the middle and at the bottom. The share of total income going to the top one percent has increased from roughly eight percent in the 1960s to more than 20 percent today." (highlighting added)
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By protecting the ultra-rich and starving the government of needed revenue, the Tea-Party is waging war on the middle and lower classes. In defending their dogged line against any and all taxes, Tea-Party members have adopted a refrain of something akin to 'We cannot tax the job-creators. It would further erode the economy." This is patently untrue. In general, larger businesses and wealthy individuals have plenty of cash-on-hand to hire more workers. Why have they not done so? For one simple reason - demand for goods and services is flat.
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The Road Back To AAA and American Respectability
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The Tea-Party, a recrudescent movement of the Reagan-era, supply-side school of economics in the 1980s, has the equation precisely backwards. Tax breaks at the top will neither spur the economy nor solve the economic dilemma. They will only exacerbate the crisis.
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An economic recovery strong enough to create jobs and pay down the debt must be launched from the bottom-up. In taking money from higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans and closing corporate tax loopholes, the US government would not only have a considerable sum to invest in badly needed infrastructure upgrades and job-training programs, but it would also be able to pay off a larger portion of the national debt. A relatively small tax-break for middle and lower income-earners would drive-up consumer spending and more than pay for itself - by sparking those 'job creators' to begin hiring again - which would then put additional taxpayers into the economy who contribute to entitlement programs and again - pay down the debt.
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When S&P downgraded the credit rating of the US from AAA to AA+, it was a wake-up call to a nation in need of a large-scale bailout program for its struggling, hard-working citizens. Plutocracy and democracy are not compatible. If America is to live up to its billing as a nation 'of the people, by the people (and) for the people,' then its economic policies must be centered on achieving opportunities for the average citizen rather than the citizen-elite.
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From the financial data and the state of political gridlock, S&P was 100% correct in downgrading America. Indeed, it was well-earned. The question now is: Will the US reaction be that of a spoiled college student who lacks the maturity to accept sound and constructive criticism? Or will Washington take a hard look in the mirror and address the structural deficiencies in its economy with new policies based on the timeless values of fairness, common sense and human dignity? While the future cannot be predicted, one thing is for sure. Every American - and the entire world - has an enormous stake in the outcome.
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(Picture: A US $10,000 bill. President Woodrow Wilson graces the front of a rarely-seen denomination. The S&P credit rating came into existence during Wilson's presidency in 1917.)
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To read Robert Lieberman's incisive article "Why The Rich Are Getting Richer: American Politics in The Second Gilded Age," please click onto the following link: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67046/robert-c-lieberman/why-the-rich-are-getting-richer
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To view relevant additional economic data (charts and graphs) on the US economy, please click onto KleosTimes to the right and view posts under 8 August.
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The author is an American.
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J Roquen

The New Islam

2011-08-02T09:01:00.000-04:00

The holy month of Ramadan has arrived once again for the more than one billion adherents of Islam around the world. From dawn to dusk, every Muslim, translated as 'a person who submits to God,' must refrain from eating and drinking for four weeks. Only the sick, the old and infirm and a limited number of others are exempted by the Qur'an. Along with limiting the intake of food and water between sundown and sunrise, Muslims freely give money to charity and re-read the Qur'an to reflect on its teachings.
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As with any other text, no two people read a book in the same way. Readers often debate each other on the meaning of certain words, the intent of the author and where the correct emphasis lies in various passages. In short, it is all about interpretation, and Muslims have been interpreting the Qur'an quite a bit differently in the past two or three decades due to the intellectual and scholarly contributions of progressive-thinking men and women. By scrutinizing the Qur'an and re-examining the history of the time of the Prophet Mohammad (570-632), Islamic feminists, progressive Muslims and non-Muslim Western historians have uncovered a less patriarchal and more egalitarian set of principles from the text.
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Mohammad: A Prophet of Feminism
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If a feminist is a person who believes that women ought to have the same rights and opportunities as men, then Mohammad, by the standards of the seventh century, was a feminist in most respects. Among people in the West, it is commonly believed that the Qur'an allows men to have four wives. While true, two formidable caveats exist in the text prevent more than one marriage at a time. Consider the following line on marriage in the Qur'an:
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"Marry those women who are lawful for you, up to two, three or four, but only if you can treat them all equally." (4:3)
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Muslim men of wealth and supreme confidence, who may believe themselves to be up to the task, are then dissuaded from having multiple wives with a later verse worded in more direct terms.
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"No matter how you try, you will never be able to treat your wives equally." (4:129)
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Since fairness among two, three or four wives can never be achieved, monogamous marriage is what God prescribed through the Prophet. This is how a vast majority of Muslims understand their faith on the subject. Why did Mohammad choose to make a disjointed statement rather than an unequivocal one (i.e. 'Men are to take only one wife.')? As the Qur'an was not composed in a vacuum, Mohammad had to negotiate his ideas among Bedouin tribes. Bedouin culture, which was extremely patriarchal, allowed women to be taken and traded as prizes of war. Hence, Mohammad may have been forced to use shrewd and subtle language to impose his will (or God's will) on the surrounding tribes. In any case, Mohammad strongly preferred marriage between one husband and one wife - a progressive improvement for women on the Arabian Peninsula.
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Qualifying polygyny to the point of rendering the practice all but dead was not the only contribution of the Prophet for the sake of 'the better half.' In outlawing infanticide, Mohammad ended the horrific practice of killing newborns - of which female babies constituted the largest number as unwanted additions to ultra-patriarchal families. Furthermore, married women were given dowries and some rights of inheritance. Not only was the lot of Muslim women improved in the Arabian desert but their new status was higher than that of many women on the European Continent.
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What about the hijab or covering? Interestingly, only one verse exists in the Qur'an concerning head or facial covering for women.
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"And when ye
Ask (his ladies)
For anything ye want
Ask them from before
A screen (covering): that makes
For greater purity for
Your hearts and for theirs" (33:53)
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The 'ladies' in this passage refers to Mohammad's wives. Hence, Muslim women are not required by the Qur'an to wear any head or facial covering at all. It was only a request or perhaps a necessity for women visiting the Prophet and his family.
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In terms of prayer (salat), one of the 'Pillars of Islam,' Mohammad was quite content to allow men and women to pray together. As the Qur'an repeatedly declares men and women equal in the eyes of God (4:1, 33:35, 3:195), it was only fitting that all believers worship as one. At some point in the century after his death, men and women began praying separately under a patriarchal interpretation of the Qur'an by religious leaders.
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Hence, feminist and progressive Muslims argue that allowing men to take up to four wives, forcing women to wear headcovering, imposing extreme forms of gender-segregation and denying women the right to vote or drive a car (Saudi Arabia) have no basis in the Qur'an and are un-Islamic. From a historical point of view and an objective exegesis of the Qur'an, they are entirely correct.
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The Most Dangerous and Destructive Qur'anic Verse To Women
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"Men are the maintainers and protectors of women, because Allah has given one more (strength) than the other, because they support them from their means. Therefore, the righteous women are devoutly obedient..." (4:34)
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No intellectually honest person can interpret these lines as anything other than the utter subjugation of women, and this translation (or similar one) can be found in most copies of the Qur'an on bookshelves across the non-Arabic speaking world. If accurate, one of two things must be true. Either the progressive-feminist reading of the Qur'an is wholly mistaken or an intractable contradiction exists between this statement and other ones that clearly give both genders equal status. Yet, this translation is most likely not accurate. Due to the incredible elasticity of the Arabic language, another interpretation has been offered to solve the dilemma.
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"Men are the support of women as God gives some more means than others, and because they spend of some of their wealth (to provide for them)" (4:34)
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From men being 'maintainers and protectors' and having more 'strength' than women to acting to 'support' women is quite a difference. The Arabic phrase qawwamuna 'ala an-nisa can be fashioned into a patriarchal statement of subjugation or as a mutually supportive one for men and women. Again, only the second translation is consistent with other verses proclaiming gender-equality in the Qur'an. These lines only constitute half of 4:34, however. Note the chasm between the following two translations of the rest of the verse.
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"As to those (women) on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them"
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"As for women that you feel are averse, talk to them suasively; then leave them alone in bed (without molesting them) and go to bed with them (when they are willing)"
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While both statements are problematic, the first one, which still remains ascendant among Quran'ic scholars in both the East and the West, poses an obvious threat to a woman's life and well-being. When Laleh Bakhtiar, an Iranian-American Muslim, came upon 4:34 a few years ago during her project to produce a new translation of the Qur'an, she almost quit due the presence of the word 'beat.' Indeed, her reaction has been shared by Muslims and non-Muslims alike for centuries. The idea that a compassionate and merciful God could advocate violence against women at any time ought to strike anyone as both illogical and appalling. Fortunately, Bakhtiar decided to pursue further investigation. After weeks of research, she came to the conclusion that the word daraba from the root word drb had been misconstrued for centuries. Rather than 'beat', drb or daraba meant 'to go away.' Placed within the context of Muhammad's empowering reforms for women, her translation is the only one that makes sense. The change is revolutionary.
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"Husbands who fear adversity on the part of wives, admonish them, leave their bed and go away." (4:34, Bakhtiar translation)
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While the Arabic language lends itself to two or more possible translations for the first half of 4:34, Bakhtiar seems to have irreversibly corrected drb from 'beat' to 'to go away' in the second half of the verse. As such, 'support' rather than 'maintain and protect' in the first line naturally complements 'to go away' in the last line. If woven together, 4:34 becomes quite palatable.
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"Men are the support of women as God gives some more means than others, and because they spend their wealth (to provide for them) ... Husbands who fear adversity on the part of their wives, admonish them, leave their bed and go away."
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Why is the phraseology important? Although it may sound postmodernist, language is power. It does not take a PhD to understand that some male Muslims, who read that they are to 'maintain and protect' their women due to having more 'strength' and are given a license to 'beat' their wives if necessary, will do so (and have done so) under this inaccurate translation. For anyone with even the slightest conscience, the reading and translation of 4:34 with the verb 'beat' cannot disappear fast enough.
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At the North American Council for Muslim Women in the United States, founder Sharifa Alkhateeb discovered that Muslim women were more frequent victims of domestic violence than their non-Muslim counterparts due to being ignorant of the non-violent teachings of the Qur'an and men who believed themselves fully justified in beating their wives as part of God's instruction in 4:34 translated with 'beat'. (see her report below)
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To think about how many women have needlessly suffered under the inaccurate reading and translation of the second half of 4:34 (beat) in the Muslim world across time (centuries) and space is to approach the unthinkable. Relatively few people ever question the order - especially if the order is built upon God's word. Yet, everything must be questioned and questioned again as the welfare of the world is on the line. Islamic theocracies, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and others, have interpreted the Qur'an through the false prisms of their patriarchal cultures and corrupted the true Islam of equality for all - including women. That is the essential argument of progressive-feminist Muslims, and they have both history and a far more objective interpretation of the Qur'an on their side.
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The New Islam = The Old Islam and The West
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When Manal al-Sharif and the Women2Drive movement challenge the ban on women's driving by Riyadh and Muslim women all across the Middle East and Africa protest against patriarchal regimes, they are representing a new Islam derived from Islam at its roots and a mixture of Western values from the Muslim diaspora. One element is central to the socio-political movement of Muslims across the world - ijtihad - the Arabic word for making an independent judgment on the meaning of the Qur'an. Although circumscribed to the Muslim holy book, is not ijtihad another form of 'reason' - the same 'reason' that led the French Revolutionaries of 1789 to question the God and the logic behind the ancien regime (the divine right of kings) and revolt with Marianne, the goddess of reason and liberty, as their symbol? Although not as radical, this questioning and application of reason has led to a reshaping of Islam.
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In truth, everyone - North, South, East and West - needs to be open-minded enough to learn from all parts of the globe. No single person, government or institution has a monopoly on truth. As all peoples and all nation-states are flawed to some degree, the world needs to be able to conduct a respectful dialogue among its religions and cultures.
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The stakes of the burgeoning progressive-feminist movement in Islam are monumental, and it is only appropriate to close with the words of the late Dr. Fathi Osman - a Muslim and one of the most learned Islamic scholars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century:
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"Muslims cannot reactivate their societies, secure a positive role in the contemporary world and get their message heard by all people, while a half of their population is suppressed or neglected."
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No truer or wiser words exist on the challenge for Islam to redeem every member of its most precious resource - its faithful women.
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Key Sources and Recommendations
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Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992).
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Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Meaning of The Holy Qur'an (Beltsville, Maryland: Amana, 2001).
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Sharifa Alkhateeb, "Ending Domestic Violence in Muslim Families." Please click onto the following link to read the report: http://www.themodernreligion.com/women/dv-ending.htm
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Dilshad D. Ali, "The Power of Muslim Women" on beliefnet.com. To read the article on the new translation by Laleh Bakhtiar, please click onto the following link: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Islam/2006/09/The-Power-Of-Muslim-Women.aspx?p=3
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Reza Aslan, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam (New York: Random House, 2005). Highly recommended. See especially p.23-74.
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Lynn Hunt et al. The Making of The West: Peoples and Cultures, Volume I: To 1740 (Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2003), 257-270.
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Neil MacFarquhar, "New Translation Prompts Debate on Islamic Verse" New York Times, 25 March. To read about Laleh Bakhtiar's struggle with 4:34, please click onto the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/us/25koran.html?ei=5088&en=835924e5b6d16c52&ex=1332475200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
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Fathi Osman, "Muslim Women: The Family and The Society" posted on the website of the University of Southern California Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement. To read his paper of superior erudition in the progressive tradition, please click onto the following link:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/private/cmje/issues/MUSLIM_WOMEN.pdf
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Amina Wadud, Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Texts from a Woman's Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
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Translations of Qur'an 4:34 were taken from Aslan (see above), Bakhtiar in the article by Ali (see above), The Meaning of The Holy Qur'an (2001) by Abdullah Ali (see above) and the three-translation Qur'an on the USC - Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement at the following link:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/ Click on 'resources' to read the Qur'an and the Hadith in translation. Click on 'issues' to read Dr. Osman's progressive scholarship on several key issues surrounding Islam - including human rights.
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(Picture: The symbol of Islamic feminism)
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This article is dedicated to all Muslims working for peace and justice around the world - especially on the behalf of women. Thank you.
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J Roquen

A Man, A Feminist, A Muslim

2011-07-26T11:08:00.001-04:00

Imagine your country has been recently conquered by a hegemonic power with territories across the globe, and your nation is just the latest victim of its voracious appetite for resources and prestige. Needless to say, you and your fellow citizens of a once proud and sovereign community would all be asking the same question, 'How could we have allowed this to happen?' Some possible answers would immediately come to mind. Perhaps your military was inadequate to counter the threat, or maybe your government was plagued by political, ethnic or religious divisions - and that allowed the foreign power to exploit your internal weaknesses. Either one of these conclusions would be logical, and they do explain how some nations have been able to take over other ones throughout history. For one prominent Egyptian, however, neither of these explanations were satisfactory in answering why Egypt had succumbed to the control of the British Empire in the late nineteenth century.
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Qasim Amin, born in Alexandria in 1863, had another idea. Rather than deficient armed forces or weak government, he believed patriarchy, the subordination of women by men in all walks of life, was the principal reason behind his country's downfall. Amin, a highly intelligent aristocrat who finished law school at age seventeen, considered women the 'backbone' of society. From this vantage point he stated, 'It is impossible to be successful men, if they do not have mothers capable of raising them to be successful.' Hence, by subjugating women, men had subjugated themselves - eliminating their greatest asset and squandering their most precious resource to become strong, self-sufficient people. On that point, he was absolutely right. Whether or not gender-oppression was the deciding factor in Egypt's loss of political power to Britain is impossible to ascertain.
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Some scholars have questioned his portrayal of gender relations. From the historical evidence, they believe Amin incorrectly painted the relationship between men and women in overly stark terms. Whatever the case, Amin published two books, The Liberation of Women (1899) and The New Woman (1900), and was a male pioneer of Muslim feminism.
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In his writings, Amin boldly claimed that Egypt's Muslim religious elite - along with most Muslim men - had been badly misconstruing the text of the Qur'an. Rather than giving primary status to men, the word of God (given to Muhammad through Gabriel), called for total equality between the sexes, and Amin quoted from the Qur'an to substantiate his argument. Inside the 114 surahs (chapters) in the Muslim holy book, Amin indeed had a wide-range statements to cite from as evidence - of which include the following (3):
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For Muslim men and women
For believing men and women
For devout men and women
For true men and women
For men and women who are
Patient and constant, for men
And women who humble themselves...
For them Allah has prepared
Forgiveness and a great reward (33:35)
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As the promise of a blissful eternity is given to members of each gender equally, God does not favor one over the other from this statement. Here is another Quranic verse supportive of Amin's thesis.
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And their Lord hath accepted
Of them, and answered them:
"Never will I suffer to be lost
The work of any of you,
Be he male or female:
ye are from one another..." (3:195)
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Once again, God does not discriminate between the life's work of men and women. Both are equally recognized. The verse 'ye are from one another' also conveys mutuality. Speaking of mutuality, consider one more quote from the Qur'an that Amin could have used to make his case (among many others):
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O mankind! reverence
Your Guardian-Lord,
Who created you
From a single Person,
Created, of like nature,
His mate, and from them twain
Scattered (like seeds)
Countless men and women -
Fear Allah, through Whom
Ye demand your mutual (rights),
And (reverence) the wombs
(That bore you): for Allah
Ever watches over you (4:1)
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The first part of this verse harkens back to the story of creation for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Instead of woman (Eve) being created from Adam's rib as told in the book of Genesis - which clearly connotes patriarchy - men and women were created by 'a single Person' and 'of like nature.' Perhaps more impressively, the passage, which not only suggests men and women enjoy 'mutual rights' within God's domain but also commands believers to revere 'the wombs (That bore you)', speaks to the equality and honor women deserve in society.
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For Amin and his mentor, Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905), their socially egalitarian (or feminist) interpretation of God's word earned the enmity of conservative practitioners of the faith. While some critics found their progressive views to be simply in error, others went so far as to label them traitors to Islam.
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Qasim Amin is truly a man for our time. Out of love and respect for his mother, his wife, his daughters and for all women, he could not remain silent. At the same time, Amin realized that in liberating women - men also liberate themselves from being on the wrong side of both reason - and an all-loving God.
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(Picture: Qasim Amin, 1863-1908)
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To read a short, key passage from one of Amin's shorter writings on women, please click onto the following link: http://www.mediterraneas.org/article.php3?id_article=72
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To see Qasim Amin's Facebook page, please click onto the following link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Qasim-Amin/110931988957573
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Source for translation of the Qur'an: Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Meaning of The Holy Qur'an (Beltsville, MD, Amana Publications, 2001).
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J Roquen

Take The Corp Out Of News

2011-07-19T15:02:00.030-04:00

There were several notable moments in the three-hour testimony of worldwide media-mogul Rupert Murdoch (b. 1931) and James Murdoch (his son) before a committee of the British Parliament today. As other commentators have already noted, the founder (Rupert) and the Chief Executive (James) of News Corporation came across as being largely divorced from the operations of their company. When asked why News Corp. paid the legal fees of an employee, who had pleaded guilty to phone-hacking (a felony), James Murdoch replied that he had been 'surprised' upon learning that fact. But why should he have been surprised?
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During the very same hearing, James' father actually gave the answer to that question. In response to criticism that he ought to have known about the egregious behavior carried out by his employees, Rupert stated that News of the World had represented less than 1% of his company's media empire. Hence, it was a blip on a radar screen that any executive would surely have missed. While possibly true, this statement reveals the Rupert Murdoch's view of the role of journalism in society. It is merely a business, a money-making opportunity - a source of lucrative profits for him, his family and the shareholders in News Corporation.
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To be fair, he and his company are not alone in turning news from a public service into a private cash-cow. However, Mr. Murdoch controls the largest newspaper-TV news conglomerate in the world. How did he manage to put together such a giant company? It was quite simple, really. Mr. Murdoch and his cohorts decided long ago to ditch the idea of 'responsible journalism.' In its place came headlines full of salacious stories and pro-business, anti-labor rants by well-paid columnists and talking heads. The result? His papers and television stations achieved high ratings on gossip that ruined peoples lives and - at the same time - provided a perfect venue for businesses wishing to advertise their goods and services. News Corporation has indeed been a godsend for the corporate world. Its editorials have consistently sided with and promoted the interests of multinational corporations from Singapore to Seattle. Here is an example.
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When the three main contenders for the US Democratic presidential nomination (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards) had the temerity to suggest that health care was a 'right' and that a person's life transcended financial considerations, Murdoch's papers and TV stations (Fox News) immediately launched a smear campaign on behalf of the US health care industry (note the word - a correct one - industry) and the pharmaceutical companies. All three candidates were labelled as proponents of 'big government' - a euphemism used by conservatives to trigger fears of a tax increase among the upper middle and upper classes. When Obama began pulling away from Clinton on the road to the nomination, Murdoch's minions pulled out a classic right-wing label - 'socialist.' Yes, a Democrat knows that he or she has truly 'arrived' when this leftover monicker from the Cold War appears on the political horizon.
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And what did Obama do to deserve that charge? Well, he had the utter gall to suggest that capitalism needed to be partially regulated. What does regulation mean to corporations? It means a slight loss in profits and smaller dividend checks for shareholders. That, of course, is unacceptable to the enterprising Murdoch and his allies across the corporate world. Since the 2008 election, the Murdoch media empire has conducted a daily assault on the Obama administration to preserve its interests and that of its financial backers - the corporations that advertise in their newspapers and television stations.
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By running sensational stories (with the aid of privacy infringements), promoting the interests of the corporate world and demonizing its critics, Murdoch has developed an enormous audience raised on and hungry for more ephemeral gossip - and a long list of corporations willing to support him. It truly has been a win-win situation in a business sense. In The Times (UK), the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Washington Times, The Australian, Barron's, Star TV (India and Greater China) and Fox News Channel among many others, Murdoch provides pro-corporate propaganda to sway the political agenda toward de-regulation, small government and laissez-faire economics for his advertisers - other corporations. All in all, it has been a perfect marriage of personal cupidity and unscrupulous business practices at the expense of the middle and lower classes.
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News: A Public Trust, Not a Private Business
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Hence, James Murdoch ought not have been surprised that someone in his company (presumably a manager or managing editor) authorized legal reimbursement for an employee found guilty of phone-hacking. Remember the corporate culture of News Corporation. It is a business. It exists to turn a profit - not provide a public service. Hence, its life depends on sales and ratings. Targets are set. In order to gain as many high-paying advertisers as possible, the paper and the TV station must attract the largest audience possible. If its salesmen can credibly claim that nearly everyone reads their newspapers or watches their television channels, then they will be able to attract more advertising revenue. If you owned a business, would you not want to advertise in the newspaper or on the TV station that had the most readers or viewers respectively? More people = more sales.
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This is unethical. News should never be subordinated to the interests of the almighty US Dollar, the almighty British Pound or the Euro. Can any society claim to have 'free speech' if that speech is slanted by corporate interests? If media is driven by corporate interests and extant for corporate interests, where are the voices of community leaders? Where are the voices of dissenters? That is what makes democracy a true democracy - an open exchange of views by all members of society - where all ethnic groups, both genders and all socio-economic classes have equal access to a publicly broadcasted discourse. Companies and corporations are welcome and should be represented as well, but they cannot be allowed to set the agenda or dominate discussion.
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There are two significant lessons to be learned from the Murdoch phone-hacking hearings. First, News Corporation needs to be broken up for the sake of the public interest in every country that used to be a part of the British Empire - including Britain herself. The Murdoch monopoly has had undue influence over the politics of these countries due to its size. Second, the business in 'news business' ought to be eliminated. While news organizations ought to be largely free of state control, citizens need to have a role in shaping the behavior of their media outlets. Accountability must be more than just a token word on a business agenda.
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Our democratic discourse depends upon free speech and free media - free from the poisonous influence of corporate culture that places profits before people. Rather than an advertising slogan to promote a brand, the phrase 'fair and balanced' must be a high ideal delivered with integrity.
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(Postscript: Rupert Murdoch is on the Board of Directors of Philip Morris International - one of the largest tobacco companies in the world. His son, James, became a board member of GlaxoSmithKline - one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world - in February 2009. As important or more importantly, Rupert joined the Cato Institute, an influential libertarian (small government) American think tank, as a board member several years ago. The Cato Institute advocates deregulation of industry (no checks or balances) in order to allow companies to have free rein (no oversight) in the marketplace. Consider the following analysis by FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting) - a non-profit organization in New York City that evaluates bias in news organizations and conflicts of interest in news reporting,
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"Murdoch sits on the board of directors of Philip Morris, the tobacco giant recently inducted into INFACT's Hall of Shame "for exerting undue influence over public policy-making" with the help of 240 registered federal and state lobbyists—spending as much as $2 million per month to lobby federal officials. Murdoch publications such as TV Guide reap enormous profits from cigarette ads. And Murdoch's Fox Broadcasting is cozy with Philip Morris subsidiary Miller Brewing Co., which recently boosted its advertising account with Fox to about $75 million per year for sports and primetime programs." (Advertising Age, 6/16/97).
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To read the entire FAIR report from January 1998, which reveals the toxic nexus between Murdoch's interests and his self-serving control of the media, please click onto the following link:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1409.)
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(Photo: Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation takes a shaving cream pie to the face during hearings on the behavior of his company - News Corporation. The perpetrator of this pointless act was immediately taken into custody by police.)
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J Roquen

Jinnah and Nehru: Men of Peace

2011-07-18T09:01:00.001-04:00

The year was 1947. After decades of struggle to liberate itself from European imperialism, India, the 'crown jewel' of the British Empire, was set to gain its independence from foreign control. What ought to have been days of joy and celebration, however, turned to tragedy instead.
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Upon leaving the subcontinent, Britain carried out a plan allowing for the creation of two new nations - West Pakistan and East Pakistan - the latter becoming Bangladesh in 1971. In regard to the former, it was ushered into existence by a line drawn through the Punjab in the northwest corner of India. West Pakistan (now Pakistan) embodied longtime aspirations of a significant number of Indian Muslims to have their own state. By August, two of the largest mass migrations in history were underway. While more than seven million Muslims relocated from India to Pakistan, a nearly equal number of Hindus and Sikhs left Pakistan for India.
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During this unprecedented population upheaval, religious and nationalist tensions ran high. A number of Hindus accused Pakistani Muslims of betraying 'Mother India'. In return, some Pakistani Muslims again criticized Hindu leaders for denying them equal rights as citizens of India - as they were the minority in many areas. In their view, separation was not a choice but a necessity to preserve their dignity. When anger turned to violence, hundreds of thousands of people died in sporadic slaughters along the border. These were scenes of utter horror.
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Since those tragic events, India and Pakistan have fought four major wars, several proxy wars and more than a few skirmishes. In 2001-02, New Delhi and Islamabad almost plunged the subcontinent into a nuclear holocaust. An eleventh hour diplomatic intervention by the United States and Russia barely averted disaster. Now, another terrorist attack on Mumbai, which occurred last week, threatens to throw Indo-Pakistani relations into crisis once again if evidence implicates one or more radical Muslim groups in Pakistan.
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After sixty-four years of conflict, it is time for India and Pakistan to make peace. Despite the existence of an artificially imposed border, the people of India and Pakistan share the same history, drink the same water, eat the same food, speak the same languages and belong to religions dedicated to tolerance and understanding at their best. On the subcontinent, it seems that many people have forgotten that Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) and Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), the respective founders of Pakistan and modern India, were not ideologues driven by the pursuit of power but rather - men committed to peace, hope and prosperity for all. To begin the process of reconciliation, it would be worthwhile for Indians and Pakistanis alike to review the content of their speeches delivered on the eve of independence. Hence, excerpts of these addresses of superior statesmanship are reproduced below with a subsequent comment.
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Mohammad Ali Jinnah: 'Presidential Address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan', 11 August 1947 (abridged)
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"The first observation I would like to make is this: You will no doubt agree with me that the first duty of government is to maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the state.
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Now, what shall we do? Now, if we want to make this great state of Pakistan happy and prosperous, we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor.
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If you will work in cooperation, forgetting the past, burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed. If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this state with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make.
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You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place to worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State."
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My guiding principle will be justice and complete impartiality, and I am sure that with your support and cooperation, I can look forward to Pakistan becoming one of the greatest nations in the world."
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Jawaharlal Nehru: 'A Tryst with Destiny' (a speech delivered to the Constituent Assembly of India, 14 August 1947 - abridged)
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"(The) future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today.
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The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and the inequality of opportunity. And so we have to labour and work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit-together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart.
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Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.
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We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good and ill fortune alike.
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Whither do we go, and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman."
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India and Pakistan: Two Nations, One People, One World, One Peace
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The similarity of these speeches is striking. Both Jinnah and Nehru emphasized unity and peace through diversity. Religious tolerance, freedom of expression and a commitment to helping those in need with compassion and charity were proclaimed paramount in realizing equal and total justice. Although Jinnah was a Muslim and Nehru was an agnostic atheist, each man spoke the highest truth of humanity by placing the welfare of human beings over personal ideology.
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Since 1947, mistrust, hatred and suspicion have been handed down from generation to generation in both countries. Many boys and girls of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, who have come to adulthood, harbor the same nationalist and religious prejudices. They have never questioned whether or not their fear of the other country or the Hindu or the Muslim is rational. It is not rational. Inside the hearts and minds of a great majority of Indians and Pakistanis and Hindus and Muslims lies a desire for reconciliation and peace. Yet, a climate of fear has been constructed by irresponsible religious leaders, unscrupulous politicians and a mass media more interested in getting ratings than presenting a professional discourse of ideas. In order to improve Indo-Pakistani relations, New Delhi and Islamabad will not only need to continue substantive diplomatic discussions but also construct programs to bring citizens of both nations together for a meaningful dialogue.
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The prospects for reconciliation and a lasting peace, however, ultimately depend on each and every individual in India and Pakistan. When one person decides to cast aside his or her fears and prejudices for hope, compassion, tolerance and understanding, it is not only a victory for that person - but also a victory for India, Pakistan and humanity.
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It is time for victory. It is time for peace.
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(Photo: Nehru and Jinnah)
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To read the full text of Jinnah's 11 August 1947 speech, please click onto the following link:
http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/constituent_address_11aug1947.html
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To read the full text of Nehru's 'A Tryst with Destiny' speech on 14 August 1947, please click onto the following link: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1947nehru1.html
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For additional photos and a 1947 partition map of India and Pakistan, please click onto kleostimes.tumblr.com to the right and view the postings for 18 July
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J Roquen

Marianne Forever

2011-07-11T07:14:00.003-04:00

Thirteen years after the American Continental Congress approved Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776, the French monarchy found itself on the verge of collapse. It was broke from extravagant spending on royal accommodations (Louis XIV on his palace at Versailles) and from fighting in several financially draining wars - including the American Revolution - since the beginning of the century.
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On 5 May 1789, the Estates General, a seldom-convened representative body which had been called by the King some months beforehand, assembled at Versailles for the purpose of solving concurrent political and economic crises. From the outset, there was widespread disagreement between the three orders in the special parliament - the Clergy (the First Estate), the Nobles (the Second Estate) and everyone else (the Third Estate). As the Third Estate largely consisted of lawyers and other bourgeois elements, the common man - or ninety-five to ninety-seven percent of France - was thus largely left without a voice. Hence, several questions paralyzed the proceedings. Most concerned the Third Estate. Who was the Third Estate representing? If truly representing the people, ought it not have more than one bloc-vote out of three? Otherwise, the First and the Second Estates would be able to outvote the Third Estate 2-1 to protect their privileges and advance their mutually-held prerogatives at every turn.
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While the Estates General was falling apart at the King's court, the specter of famine appeared around the country. Despite a relatively abundant harvest, grain was delayed in getting to market for various reasons. On 5 October, a crowd of women in Paris decided to take matters into their own hands. In pouring rain, they walked twenty-five kilometers to take on the monarchy face-to-face. By doing so, they were risking everything - including the possibility of being thrown in jail. Yet, the situation was intolerable. They had been denied bread in years past, but the issue had become more than mere bread. It had now become a question of basic human dignity. Why should the average working man and woman - small farmers and peasants - starve while nobles and businessmen lived in relative affluence? Why should women be denied a voice in the affairs of government? To be sure, many male revolutionaries could not and would not countenance the idea of women participating in political affairs, but the logic of the old, hierarchical, patriarchal order was beginning to be exposed for what it was - an ideology constructed by the elites (Royals, Nobles, Clergy) to protect their preponderant power at the expense of the people. As such, some revolutionaries began questioning every thread woven into the fabric of the ancien regime. The most radical of them considered marriage a barrier to free love and belief in God - any god - as sheer mythology. Where would this rethinking of the socio-economic basis of human existence end?
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Appearing en masse at Versailles, the indignant Parisian women, probably tired from their long trek, marched right into an ongoing session of the Estates General to protest inadequate food supplies, high prices and an expanded presence of the military. In response, an intimidated Louis XVI agreed to their demands. The women of Paris and its environs had not only won an unprecedented short-term victory, but they had also sown the seeds for future victories in the quest for human rights and women's rights around the world. That was October.
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Marianne: From Image to Incarnation
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A few months previously during the summer of 1789, 'Marianne,' an iconic female symbol of 'Liberty' and 'Reason,' had been adopted by male revolutionary leaders to symbolize their revolt against the old order. Why did they decide to choose a feminine figure instead of a man? Some scholars have pointed to the fact that la republique (republic) is a feminine noun in the French language. While true, perhaps another consideration existed in their thinking. As the First Estate (the Clergy) and the Second Estate (the Nobles) were bastions of strict patriarchal order, would not a strong, intrepid woman represent a complete antithesis to their claims to power? A bare-breasted Marianne in Eugene Delacroix' 1830 painting Liberty Leading The People, where Marianne and 'Liberty' are one and the same, depicts her smashing the ancien regime with the Tricolor Flag (representing the ideals of the revolution) and her womanhood (representing a new social order between men). Unquestionably, the male revolutionaries that adopted the imagery of Marianne had indeed found a potently stark symbol of both defiance and progress. When those Parisian women marched on the Estates General a few months later in October, Marianne seemed to have become fully incarnated.
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Since the days of the French Revolution, Marianne has been the national symbol of France, and she has crossed oceans and wide expanses of land to appear as the Statue of Liberty in New York City (a gift from France in 1886), in the Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square in 1989 - and as a guiding light for the entire world.
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Marianne Forever
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On 14 July, France will celebrate Bastille Day - the equivalent to July 4th or Independence Day for Americans. On that day in 1789, an angry mob of Parisians revolted against the monarchy and stormed the Bastille prison to seize its storage of weapons. As significant as Bastille Day was and remains to France, the iconography of Marianne and the march of courageous women into the Estates General at Versailles served as a catalyst in the creation of a future order whereby men and women would have the possibility of living in a society devoted to liberty, equality and fraternity for all. Therefore...
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When Iranian women gather to protest for democracy under their violently oppressive regime, and young Saudi women drive in defiance of gender oppressive laws and customs, and Greek and Spanish women take to the streets to challenge broken or corrupt ruling elites, they are extending the legacy of Marianne and their French sisters in the late eighteenth century.
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The quest for one world with justice for all continues. Fortunately, Marianne has only become more attractive with age.
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(Photo: Liberty (Marianne) Leading The People - Eugene Delacroix, 1830)
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J Roquen

The Heart Of The Matter

2011-07-07T00:01:00.000-04:00

Since the English forced the Dutch to surrender New York in 1664, tens of millions of people from all over the world have sailed or flown across the Atlantic to escape old lives and begin new ones in one of the greatest cities of the world. The following tale, which includes profiles of three individuals in 'The Big Apple,' is fictional. Yet the places, the setting and the circumstances are all too real. These lives have been lived a countless number of times in both the history of the city and the history of the world.
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To begin this story, let's go back one year to 2010 on July 9th. New York is sweltering under intense heat and humidity, and three people - Rasna Mehra, Michael Harris and Mariana Jose Barraza - are living with the condition. What is the condition? That is for you to try and divine (guess) as you read through these accounts. Here is a hint. Regardless of your gender, age, nationality or income level, you have had the condition at least once in your life. In fact, you may have it right now.
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Rasna Mehra, 9 July 2010
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Tonight in Brooklyn, a young Indian woman is sitting down to eat in her studio apartment -where she has lived for the past six and a half years. If you were sitting across from Rasna right now, you would be unable to miss a palpable aura inside the one room flat. It is enveloped in complete silence. This is how Rasna lives in the evenings after work.
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It never used to be this way. When she was born in the state of Punjab in India, her parents somehow, intuitively guessed that their first born child would be a natural talker. Hence, they named her Rasna - which means 'The Tongue.' They could not have been more right or prescient. From her first days as a baby, Rasna displayed 'the gift of gab' as they say. She simply talked to everyone - anytime, anywhere. If her spoken word production had been paid at a decent piece-rate scale, she would be at least fifteen times richer than Bill Gates by now. Due to her social nature, she talked with everyone in Punjab and picked up several Indian languages. Not only can she speak Hindi and Punjabi, but she can also converse fluently in Bengali, Kannada, Urdu and English. Over the last three months, she has advanced to an intermediate level in Spanish as well. Her Spanish instructor marvels at her ability to pick up grammar and remember vocabulary. She is convinced that Rasna will be proficient by the end of the year.
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As you might imagine, Rasna is extremely independent. Her parents wanted her to take over the family store after high school, but Rasna had other ideas. She was accepted to the Indian Institute of Technology in Raipur and graduated first in her class. What was her focus of study? Well, the title of her senior thesis said it all: 'Trends and Developments in Social Media Circles Worldwide, 2001-2003.' That, however, was eight years ago.
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Despite the fact that she speaks six languages (almost seven) and is on Facebook, Twitter and a dozen other social media sites, Rasna has had no desire to communicate with anyone recently. A few months before she graduated from IIT, she was informed who her husband would be by her parents under an arranged marriage. In fact, Rasna always liked the young man that her mother and father selected. They had grown up together. He was smart, kind and always well-dressed, but Rasna is a romantic at heart. She wanted to work abroad and try to meet the love of her life naturally. In a sense, her parents were not completely surprised when she rejected the marriage and subsequently told them of her intention of taking a job with a software firm in New York. Yet, they were a bit disappointed as well. While they never expressed that emotion to their only daughter, Rasna could see it in their faces and hear it in their voices. It was subtle, but it was there.
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Since coming to New York, Rasna has dated several men - mostly Indian expatriates - but never felt truly intimate with any of them. In November 2009, her boyfriend of eighteen months raised the prospect of marriage over dinner at a famous Italian restaurant on the East Side. That was the first time she was struck by the condition. She had probably had the condition before, but the optimism of youth had always acted as a firewall against it. Not that night. After excusing herself from the dinner by saying she had a headache, she went home and cried for hours. Ever since that evening, the condition has been recurrent. Rather than go out with co-workers, Rasna can usually be found sitting alone, looking out the window, and wondering if her future is worth reaching. She is becoming more and more paralyzed by the condition, and she has no idea how to 'feel herself' again. Were her parents right? Should she have agreed to the arranged marriage? Is her life already ruined? These are the thoughts that now plague Rasna day in and day out.
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Michael Harris, 9 July 2010
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Michael is the equivalent of Rasna in the business world, but he is older. After taking an MBA from Harvard almost thirty-years ago, he started an advertising company on a shoestring budget and in a shoebox office on Madison Avenue. It originally had just one employee - himself. Now, his office is three floors, and he presides over more than 120 employees that are called 'associates.' How has Michael been able to succeed in one of the toughest businesses in New York? It all comes down to one word: competition. Since he was three years-old, Michael has wanted to be the best at everything, and he is truly relentless - and indefatigable. Sleep has always been optional.
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Only nine years subsequent to leaving Harvard, he made his first million. He worked nineteen or twenty hours a day, six days a week. On the seventh day, he rested - and only worked ten. When it came to his material life, he (of course) had to have the fastest car, the newest and biggest television, the most impressive house and the largest swimming pool in the neighborhood. And he got all of it. In regard to marriage, only a supermodel would do. He met his first wife at a fashion show in Paris. When she came down the runway, he imagined her walking down the aisle to him. And it happened. A huge wedding in Malta for their whole family and all of their friends ensued - along with a yacht cruise honeymoon, two perfect kids soon after and a divorce not long after that. Not surprisingly, Michael was almost never at home. For him, it was always about gaining marketshare and finding ways to reduce fixed costs for his advertising business in order to reach the $100 million mark - 'the beginning of serious money' as he was so fond of saying.
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He got married a second time to an even prettier woman - and then a third time to even prettier and younger woman than his second wife. She left him two weeks ago. Tonight, he is doing the same thing Rasna is doing in Brooklyn. He is sitting down to dinner alone. Unlike Rasna, however, he is alone in a giant house in Connecticut - eight bedrooms, five bathrooms and an Olympic-size pool in the backyard. Yet, Michael is also in a state of wonderment. Sure, he concedes to working too much. Then again, what choice did he have in the situation? 'It's a dog-eat-dog world out there,' he says to himself, adding 'If you're not first, your last.' That has been his motto since he can remember. Michael is neither a bad nor a shallow person, however. He truly loved his three wives, and loves his four children - but something has always been missing.
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Michael first realized he had the condition at age thirty-eight, and it has only gotten worse over the years. He has seen doctors dozens of times complaining of fatigue and chest-numbness. They all told him the same thing - stop working so much and take a vacation. Michael's ailment was unanimously ascribed to 'stress'. Every time he took a vacation, the condition only became more pronounced. When he was in St. Lucia last year for two weeks, he thought he was going to die from the condition. He felt a hundred times better in coming back to fifteen to nineteen hour days at the office.
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Last week, he sat down at a local coffee shop - just one week after losing his third wife to divorce - and did something he simply could not comprehend. He took out a piece of paper and wrote the following lines:
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if you have been given
a single moment of joy
it is one more moment
than you deserve
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After writing these words, Michael titled what appeared to be some kind of poem 'The Heart of the Matter.' He has read this poem every night since it was written, and he always asks himself the same question, 'How could I have written this?' His first poem has been more than an unexpected and inexplicable expression. It seems to be at least a temporary cure for the condition. Anytime he starts feeling unusually fatigued or has any chest-numbness, he reads his only poem - and his symptoms go away.
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Mariana Jose Barraza, 9 July 2010
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Mariana came into the world on 25 April 1983. Her birth was right in the middle of a civil war that ravaged her country, El Salvador, until 1992. When she was a little girl of seven years, she was abducted by a government-sponsored death squad and held for ransom. When her abductors discovered that her parents had been killed the very day they abducted Mariana in a spate of fighting outside of the capital (San Salvador), they turned her out into the streets. Luckily, a Catholic nun spotted her, and she was taken in by the church. Even more fortunately, her mother's sister, Mariana's aunt, was a naturalized American citizen in New York. Consequently, the nun was able to secure an American visa for her under a political asylum clause.
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It was difficult for Mariana to adjust to New York. She knew no English, and she knew no one except her aunt. For the first two years, she went to school but made little progress. Her ability was hampered, however, by a learning disability (unknown at the time) and episodes of depression. She often woke up at night screaming due to the violence she had witnessed and from the loss of her parents. Her father's last words echo through her mind everyday, 'Without you Mariana, my life would be a hollow shell.' At age ten in 1993, it was Mariana's life that turned out to be a hollow shell. That is when her aunt unexpectedly died from an undiagnosed tumor in her left breast. It had spread throughout her entire body within a very short time. Only a few weeks earlier, she had noticed a lump and felt some discomfort, but she dismissed the idea of cancer. 'How could I have cancer?', she thought. 'I'm only forty-one years old.' Besides, her employer did not provide health insurance, and she certainly did not have enough money to afford that 'luxury,' a word she used often to describe the health care most (but not all) middle-class, white European-Americans enjoyed - and took for granted.
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Upon her aunt's death, Mariana was placed in an orphanage. She remained there for two years and attended school. She received poor grades in all her classes, and some of the teachers became quite irritated when she failed to pay attention or turn in an assignment. They did not know of her learning disability. More importantly, they did not know of Mariana's daily agony of living - too much for anyone to handle - let alone a teenage girl. Sadly, these teachers made no attempt to connect to Mariana on human level. She was just one more person in an already overcrowded, nearly unmanageable classroom.
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So, Mariana just stopped going to school at age fourteen and found a job as a custodian at a local business. Of course, she had to lie about her age and say she was sixteen to get hired. No problem. Even if they had known her true age, they would have hired her anyway. For this company, cheap labor was deemed essential to maintaining high profits and large dividends for the shareholders. It was just a simple, unspoken practice of American life. That is how it worked. Period.
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For the next dozen years, Mariana scrubbed floors on her hands and knees and took occasional odd jobs around the city to support her lifestyle of living a rented room in one of the most dangerous areas of the city. On top of everything she had been through, she began developing the condition shortly after leaving school, and it has only become more of a factor in her life in recent years. Tonight, 9 July 2010, she is sitting next to a toilet on the third floor of the company where she works. The top of her head is on the toilet seat, and a chilling groan of pain has filled the cavernous, marble bathroom. It is Mariana. She is weeping years of anguish. In the back of her mind, she is asking herself one question over and over, 'What is the point of going on?'
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January 2011
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Mariana's answer came in the first month of 2011. On 4 January, she saw an advertisement for free ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at her local library. Anyone who wanted to improve their spoken and written English was invited to a general orientation. At the orientation, each 'student' would be paired up with a trained volunteer teacher. Four days later, Mariana went to the event, and she was assigned an instructor. Her name was Rasna. After only two sessions, Mariana and Rasna immediately hit it off due to being close in age and having some of the same struggles in America. Soon, they were meeting four times a week. Rather than a 'drain' on their energy, these meetings were having the opposite effect. They were inspiring each other. Rasna developed fun and logically-structured lesson plans, and Mariana studied as much as possible in her free time to avoid letting her new and only friend down.
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After week five, Rasna realized that Mariana was only semi-fluent in her native language (Spanish) as a result of the physical and emotional disruptions of her childhood. Fortunately, Rasna had indeed achieved full fluency in Spanish - just as her Spanish instructor had predicted, and she diplomatically asked Mariana if she would like to brush up on her native language. Rather than being offended, Mariana was overjoyed. As a result, their sessions were extended to five, one hour sessions from Monday to Friday. Sometimes, Rasna put Mariana on the spot and took her shopping. 'Okay Mariana,' she would say, 'first you are going to shop for clothes in English at this store, then we are going to another store where you are going to shop in Spanish.' Mariana had simulated a dialogue with a store clerk (Rasna) over and over in preparation. She had a list of questions for the clerks and hoped she would be able to understand all of their responses. More than ninety percent of time, she met or exceeded Rasna's - and her own - expectations. Rasna was amazed at her progress.
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April 2011
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Only three months later, a social worker that Mariana used to know from her early days in America phoned her completely out of the blue. Mariana was very happy to take the call. After she told him about her English and Spanish lessons, the social worker told her of a company executive that was looking for promising candidates to do a paid internship in the office of his company. In particular, the business owner wanted to reach out to people that most needed a break and would use the opportunity wisely. Beyond a salary, the owner was prepared to put up the interns at no cost in a fully furnished apartment in a building that he had purchased last year. Mariana could not believe it. It just sounded too good to be true. Nevertheless, she decided to interview for the position. 'What can it hurt?,' she rhetorically asked herself.
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Going into the interview, Mariana was nervous about her English. She knew that she would be meeting the owner of the company - as he conducted all the interviews personally. When Michael walked through the door and extended his hand, she felt as if she were going to faint right then and there. Forty-five minutes later, however, she got up, shook his hand to say thank you and thought about what she would wear on her first day at the office the following Monday. Mariana immediately phoned Rasna and blurted out the good news. 'His name is Michael Harris. I would say he is in his early sixties, and he must be the nicest man I have ever met! He was so warm and understanding that I forgot I couldn't speak English.' Rasna replied, 'Mariana, you can speak English. What do you think you are doing right now?' They laughed. Neither one of them had felt this happy in years - if ever.
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July 4th, 2011
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At the end of June, Michael told his ten interns that he was hosting a huge barbeque on July 4th in the backyard of his house and invited them to join him. When he said they were free to bring one or two guests along, Mariana called Rasna. And they went.
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It was a perfect day. The sun was shining, and not a single cloud dared cross the sky. Michael's huge Connecticut house was decked out in red, white and blue for Independence Day. His four kids were among the sixty guests in attendance. Everyone had fun. They threw frisbees around. They played volleyball, and most of all, they swam in his enormous pool.
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At the end of the evening, Michael stood up to address his visitors. He had always shied away from public speaking, but tonight, he could not be silent. When the guests quieted down, he began,
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'I just want to thank you all for coming here. It is my true privilege to have such good people at my home and in my life. Now, I hope you don't mind, but I need to share something with you. You see, all my life I have always had to be first in everything. I loved competition, and I loved winning even more. Despite becoming a successful businessman, a husband to three great wives (laughter) and a father to four wonderful kids, I had this condition. It is a condition that is hard to explain. It is a kind of numbness that would just come over me - often when I least expected it.'
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"Last year, I realized I was missing the core element of life itself, and that was the reason for the condition. Well, here is what I have discovered since then. I think I can sum it up in one sentence. 'In the absence of compassion and sacrifice, lies profound loneliness.' That was my condition. I no longer think about what I have been denied in life - but only what I have not given. Of course, I still experience the condition, but it is manageable through true living. And what is true living? It is people helping people. It is common decency. It is choosing understanding rather than judgment. Thank you for helping me understand this great truth."
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While the guests were applauding, Mariana looked at Rasna, and Rasna looked at Mariana. As tears began rolling down Mariana's face, she touched Rasna on the arm and said, 'Rasna, you and Michael saved my life! How can I ever repay you?' Rasna, who began crying at the same moment Mariana welled-up, replied, 'No Mariana, actually, I think you saved our lives.'
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Rasna, Michael and Mariana will always remember that July 4th. For that day was a true moment of joy.
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And that - is the heart of the matter.
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(Photo: New York City at sunset)
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J Roquen

July 4th: A Timeless Day Of Revolution

2011-06-30T08:40:00.003-04:00

On July 4th, Americans will celebrate their nation's 235th birthday by visiting family, throwing frisbees around in parks, going to picnics, swimming and of course - watching fireworks after sunset. Flags will be prominently displayed, and the colors red, white and blue will decorate everything from cakes to T-shirts. Festivities will include parades, marching bands, concerts and a famous hot dog eating contest in New York City.
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If asked to explain the meaning of the Fourth of July, most Americans would rightly define the celebration as one of 'freedom' and 'liberty.' Yet, July 4, 1776 represents far more than an emphatic pronouncement of separation from Britain. Ultimately, it was an unprecedented, watershed event in world history.
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On his tombstone, Thomas Jefferson's (1743-1826) self-written epitaph reads "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia." His political career, which included being a successful two-term president of the young republic, is not mentioned. The reason? Jefferson understood his place in history - as the person responsible for ushering in a timeless day of revolution.
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When Congress unanimously accepted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, it was endorsing a truly radical document that not only called for throwing off the "tyrannical" rule of King George III but also established a modern definition of human dignity.
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As our days are filled with tasks, chores, errands, obligations, requirements, appointments and duties, it is all too easy to view July 4th as simply an American holiday or a three-day weekend. By reading or re-reading just a few lines of the Declaration, reproduced below, the significance of his document and that moment can fortunately be recaptured.
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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, That all men are created equal"
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If Jefferson had stopped here, these thirteen words would have already constituted one of the most controversial and radical statements in history. In these few words, Jefferson managed to level centuries of hierarchical order. Kings and rich nobles were no better than workers or poor peasants. They had simply acquired their status through power - self-appointed, unjust power used to subordinate others. From these thirteen words, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) would justify ending slavery, and American women would campaign for female suffrage (finally granted in 1920). If "all men were created equal," why not black men - and why not women as well? The genius of Jefferson's phraseology is its elasticity. It allowed future generations to reinterpret the bounds of rights and liberty as society evolved from one of tradition - to one of enlightened reason.
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"That they (all men) are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"
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In his second self-evident truth, Jefferson gave "unalienable Rights" not to the state but to individuals. Hence, citizens were paramount in the order of society - not the rulers or the ruling class. The idea that governments were called into existence by people to promote their livelihoods rather than people being subjects and servants to government was indeed revolutionary. In short, it turned the eighteenth century order completely upside down.
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"That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it"
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Politics is an unending negotiation and renegotiation of rights, resources and rules. As such, government, which exists for the sole purpose of promoting 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' for its citizens, must be responsive and competently broker conflicting interests in a fair and equitable manner. In the event government fails to do so, the people can 'alter' (vote it out) or 'abolish' it and create a new government altogether. The sovereignty of the people is unequivocal.
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Jefferson's Legacy
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Five decades later, Jefferson, who had become an old man of eighty-three, picked up his quill on 24 June 1826 to write - what would be - his final letter. Many of his fellow revolutionaries were dead. Others had grown older and become conservative since the days of the American Revolution. Not Jefferson. In declining an invitation to speak in Washington, DC on July 4th, Jefferson graciously thanked the Mayor and expressed his hopes on the future of his document as an ideological force for change stating,
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"May it be to the world what I believe it to be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or are opening to the rights of man."
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If Jefferson were alive today and able to consult a textbook of modern world history, he would see his hand - his writing hand to be precise - all over the globe. From the European Revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848, to Simon Bolivar's (1783-1830) South American Revolutions in the nineteenth century, to the quest for decolonization and self-determination after World War I, to 1960 - the grand year of independence on the African continent, to Eastern Europe and China in the struggle to overthrow Communism in 1989 and to the Revolutions in Iran, Syria, Egypt and elsewhere still in progress, Jefferson's lines of revolutionary thought have inspired countless numbers of people to overthrow their tyrannical governments for democracy.
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Furthermore, the Declaration of Independence has served as the basis for the human rights revolution of the twentieth century - most notably in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) - one of the foundational texts of the United Nations.

On July 4th, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and of the United States as a nation, ninety year-old John Adams (1735-1826), one of Jefferson's fellow revolutionaries and a former US President (second after George Washington and just prior to Thomas Jefferson - the third president), lay dying at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts near Boston. As his mind turned to the legacy of his generation for the betterment of mankind, he comforted himself with one final thought - which he expressed in his last words, "Thomas Jefferson still survives." His revolutionary brother, however, had died a few hours earlier at his stately home in Virginia on the same day - July 4th.

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In fact, John Adams' final words were correct and remain correct. Thomas Jefferson, through his transcendent Declaration, does indeed still survive. He survives wherever and whenever people assert their right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" over oppressive institutions and governments - a struggle that confronts much of the world today.
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To everyone in the United States and around the world who subscribes to Jefferson's ideals - the ideals of mankind - truth, liberty, justice, security and hope, you are wished a Happy Fourth of July.
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(Photo: Thomas Jefferson, portrait by Rembrandt Peale in 1800)
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(For additional pictures, including ones of Thomas Jefferson's architecturally brilliant home (Monticello) in Charlottesville, Virginia, please click onto kleostimes.tumblr.com to the right and view postings under 30 June)
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J Roquen

Iran: A State Of Terror

2011-06-23T06:55:00.033-04:00

Iran is an exceptionally beautiful country with a long and fascinating history. Its people are highly educated, passionate and personable. When (Ayatollah) Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-1989) and his band of Islamic extremists overthrew the autocratic and repressive Shah Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980) in 1979, Iran entered an unprecedented era social and political darkness. Thirty-two years later, the people of Iran remain hostage to their own cruel and corrupt government.
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The state under Khomeini and his successors has been used to quash any form of dissent. Two armed forces, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) and Basij militia, have been charged with the task of suppressing civil liberties in round-the-clock intimidation campaigns in order to maintain power for the regime.
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Its hatred and hostility toward Israel is well-documented. Revolutionary Iran created and currently supplies Hezbollah, a Shia-Lebanese organization, with both arms and military training to launch attacks against Israel. Under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (b. 1939) and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (b. 1956), Iran has supported international terrorists and is attempting to develop nuclear capability.
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Since the 2009 presidential elections, whereby Ahmadinejad retained the presidency after both a rigged vote-count and a brutal suppression of peaceful post-election protests, Iran has descended even further into the abyss. In breaking up the anti-government demonstrations, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the Basij militia and local police departments unleashed a campaign of mass terror against its people with detentions, public beatings, forced confessions, torture and state-sponsored rape.
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In February 2010, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, chronicled testimony from several victims of the crackdown. The following passages, which have been taken from that report, exhibit the true nature of the Iranian regime.
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"One student who spent 48 hours in the ministry basement told Human Rights Watch:
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'During the attack the plainclothes forces grabbed me and some other students randomly, although we were not chanting or anything. I was blindfolded and could not recognize where we were headed. On the way, they cursed and beat me. In the 48 hours in that place, which I learned from the conversations of the guards was the basement of the Ministry of Interior, they put food in our hands and forced us to eat, and if any food fell on the ground they would beat us with batons. They made harsh noises to terrify us. We had to beg to go to the toilet. Some of the detainees had open wounds and needed medical attention, but they were treated the same way."
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Unfortunately, the regime has recruited at least a few women into its campaign of violence. This is evident in the following testimony given by a female who was rounded up near Baharestan Square on 17 June 2009 - just days after the presidential election.
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'There was a fluorescent lamp that didn't really help us to distinguish day from night. There was no soap. They confiscated all our personal belongings. It was hard to lay down or sleep. We were not allowed to use restrooms when we needed to. In Tehran's hot weather, we were deprived of a fan or water. They interrogated us. If anyone had a green scarf, shawl, or bracelet indicating that they were Mousavi supporters (Mir-Hossein Mousavi opposed Ahmadinejad in the presidential election), their situation was worse. On the last day, I was feeling sick and a female guard came and kicked me a few times to stop me from crying.'
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Although egregious, these stories represent the least severe cases of brutality. Unfortunately, many if not most victims of Iran's terror campaigns, which have been ongoing since 1979, have experienced far worse treatment.
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There are several well-researched sources of information on the internal terrorism practiced by Tehran on its 75 million people. One is the report cited above by Human Rights Watch. To read the full report, please click onto the following link: http://www.hrw.org/en/node/88463/section/3. It contains graphic and disturbing testimony.
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In the United States, PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) has produced two excellent pieces of documentary, investigative reporting. Similar to the reign of Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) in Italy from 1922-1945, the political and religious leadership of Iran relies on underlings to carry out violence against any form of dissent - including the raping of women - which Mussolini endorsed. As such, the West has been precisely correct in labeling Iran an Islamo-Fascist state.
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To watch an enlightening 'behind the scenes' report by PBS Frontline from 2004, please click onto the following link: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/watch/player.html?pkg=302_iran&seg=1&mod=0 (24:00). To view a report on the post-2009 election crackdown and its heartbreaking consequences for the people of Iran (especially women) from PBS NEWSHOUR on 10 June 2011, please click onto the following link: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june11/iranianwomen_06-10.html (9:37). Again, these reports contain graphic and disturbing material. The criminal nature of the Iranian regime, however, must be exposed to the world.
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During the US Democratic Nomination campaign in 2008, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards were asked if they would meet and conduct diplomacy with the Holocaust-denying, anti-Semitic President of Iran - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Senator Obama stated that he would do so only after "careful preparations." While gracious, Obama's position was also naive. Under no circumstances ought any Western leader meet with Ahmadinejad - especially after the post-2009 repression. The leaders of Iran have no intention of ending their campaign of terror at home or abroad. If Iran is allowed to produce nuclear weapons, there can be little doubt that they would be used to blackmail the West and threaten civilization itself. In short, the West must ally with the Iranian people, who have clearly expressed their desire for freedom and democracy, and consistently endorse and promote a policy of regime change.
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Anything less would be contrary to democratic values, human rights and common decency.
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(Photo: Basij militia or Iranian Revolutionary Guards attacking peaceful protesters in the streets during the 2009 protests)
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J Roquen

We Are (Still) All Neda

2011-06-19T13:18:00.008-04:00

Two years ago, Iran held a presidential election. When the government in Tehran reported the results and declared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad victorious in his re-election over rival reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, most of the nation was incredulous - and with good reason. The election had been rigged.
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After thirty years of living under a radically oppressive and tyrannical Islamic state, the Iranian people were pushed into collective action. Week after week, throngs of citizens - mostly under thirty years of age and social media savvy - took to the streets en masse. Particularly prominent in the crowds were large groups of young women clad in green. The color green quickly became more than a campaign theme, however. It came to signify a new generation ready to usher in an era of freedom, tolerance and equality. Upon being denied their universal right to a free and fair election, they returned to the streets to protest in even greater numbers. Iran 2009 was the true beginning of Revolution 2011 -a collective revolution from Cairo to Madrid that demands nothing less than political, social and economic justice for all.
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Iran: A Nation Held Hostage By Tyrants
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Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the religious elite of Iran has constructed one of the most intolerant and barbaric regimes in modern history. As in China, thousands of political prisoners languish in state prisons where they are subject to brutal treatment. In 1988, Tehran executed nearly 4,500 dissidents in custody in an act reminiscent of Josef Stalin's murderous rule of the Soviet Union from 1927-1953. Similar to Stalin's totalitarian state, fundamental human rights, such as freedom of speech, trial by due process and security of property, ultimately do not exist.
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Unlike the Soviet Union, however, today's Iran is steeped in patriarchy and misogyny. While Iranians discovered to be homosexual can be punished, women are regarded by the law as being worth exactly one-half of a man. For example, if a woman and a man are killed by a reckless driver, the woman's family would receive exactly half the financial compensation (diyya) as the man's family from the guilty party. Along with this law, a woman's testimony in court is also valued at half that of a man. (Regrettably, these laws are inscribed elsewhere in the Middle East)
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Under Iran's gender-oppressive regime, it is mandatory for women to cover their hair in public with a hijab (headscarf), and they can be punished for forgetting or refusing to comply. To work or travel, married women need to gain permission from their husbands.
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Neda Agha-Soltan: The Voice of Iran
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On 20 June 2009, twenty-six year old Neda Agha-Soltan drove her car near one of the ongoing protests against the corrupt government led by Ayatollah Khamenei (b. 1939) and illegitimate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (b. 1956). After getting out of her vehicle to survey the crowd - a crowd she was about to join, she was struck by a bullet, which had been fired by a member of the Iranian security forces (Basij), and killed. Her last words before dying were, "I'm burning, I'm burning."
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Iran, particularly its women, is burning to be free from a government of thugs and murderers. In the Persian language, Neda means 'Voice,' and her life and its needless end is rightly regarded as the voice of a rising generation. Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and their cohort of ruling criminals cannot silence the truth - and they will ultimately not succeed in denying justice much longer.
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Two decades after the 1989 Tiananmen protests in Beijing, tens of thousands of courageous people took to the streets to campaign for liberty in Iran. In both cases, their tyrannical governments used intimidation, mass incarceration and armed force on non-violent citizens. Both Beijing and Tehran have had no compunction in employing torture and have used the terrorist tactic of indiscriminate killing to hang onto the reins of power.
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Although the prospects for the liberation of China and Iran may seem bleak at the moment, the world has seen that only a moment is needed for a successful revolution to occur. As Eastern Europe and Russia threw off the yoke of Communist rule from 1989-91, the people of China and Iran will succeed in their march toward democracy.
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Neda was not only a daughter and a sister - she was our daughter and our sister - as one world united for peace, love and hope. While dead in body, she is not dead in spirit. As she is part of our motivation to end patriarchy, oppression and injustice, her voice will be heard through our voice - fighting for justice day and night around the globe.
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To that end, 'We Are (Still) All Neda'.
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(Picture: Image of Neda used by Iranian activists undaunted in pursuit of freedom. To view photos and a well-made video of the 2009 Green protests in Iran, please click onto kleostimes.tumblr.com to the right and view the posts under 19-20 June)
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J Roquen

Lincoln's Father

2011-06-12T12:11:00.010-04:00

Speaking years later about his childhood, he said, "It can all be condensed into a single sentence - 'The short and simple annals of the poor.'" If anything, his cursory description was an understatement. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), who has been consistently rated as one of the two best American presidents by historians (the other one is Franklin Roosevelt) and remains one of the most admired figures in history worldwide, grew up under two forms of impoverishment. Aside from growing up impecuniously, he had to endure a far more painful form of poverty. He had no love from his father.
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Thomas Lincoln (1778-1851), Lincoln's father, had an equally difficult early life. When he was only eight years old, his father (Lincoln's grandfather) was killed by Indians on the frontier state of Kentucky. As a result, Thomas was to grow up largely illiterate and forced to lead a life as a transient laborer. Fortunately, his woodworking skills allowed him to eke out a living.
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In 1806, Thomas married Nancy Hanks (1784-1818). A year afterwards, they gave birth to their first child - a daughter named Sarah. Two years later, Abraham was born. Due to legal conflicts over his property, Thomas relocated the family to a farm near the Ohio River in the state of Indiana. Rather than improving their lot, Thomas only saw his economic fortunes decline. He had few orders to make cabinets, and his farm, which was tended to by young Abraham, was not profitable.
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After only nine years of together as a family, tragedy struck the Lincoln household in 1818. Young Lincoln's mother, who was only thirty-four years old, died after ingesting poisonous milk. Due to being emotionally devastated, the Lincoln house fell into disarray. Their primitive residence became filthy, and twelve-year old Sarah was forced to become the family cook - a job met with limited success due to her youth and lack of training.
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Only fourteen months later, Thomas found a new wife. Sarah Bush Johnston (1788-1869), Lincoln's stepmother, managed to turn the entire family around in a short time. From the day of her arrival, the house was put in order, and her caring manner lifted the spirits of the entire family. She immediately took to her stepson's vivacious personality and encouraged his interest in reading. How much did she care for him? Although she had a son of her own from a previous marriage, she said of young Lincoln, "Abe was the best boy I ever saw or expect to see."
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If Sarah Johnston preferred Abe over her own son (John D. Johnston), Thomas Lincoln openly gravitated toward his stepson John due to their shared interest in farm work. Although he had a strong wiry frame and was capable of doing a prodigious amount of physical labor, young Lincoln disliked the tedium of the tasks. Oftentimes, he would break open a book or head down to the general store to meet acquaintances and tell stories. When Thomas discovered his son reading instead of doing an assigned chore, he often scolded him in anger and sometimes beat him. Consequently, Abraham, who was a truly precocious child, became completely alienated from his father.
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Thirty years later in 1851, Lincoln, who had by then become a wealthy attorney with a wife and kids in Springfield, Illinois, received a letter from his step-brother John Johnston - the one Lincoln's father had favored over him. The note contained unwelcome news. Thomas Lincoln was gravely ill, and he wanted to see his son Abe before dying.
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Although his reaction is not known, it is likely that Lincoln was both deeply conflicted and distraught -as he had battled periods of depression his entire life. In response, Lincoln replied to his step-brother, "Say to him that if we could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful than pleasant."
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Lincoln, a man who had the fortitude and resilience to guide the Union to victory in a Civil War that took the lives of more than 600,000 men and demonstrated an immense capacity to forgive others time and time again, could not overcome the anguish wrought by his father's neglect and violent hand. The memories were too painful, and Lincoln did not attend his funeral.
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Father's Day, 2011
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Father's Day is now approaching for much of the world. If you were fortunate enough to have had or now have a good father, you may very well be in the minority. As no man is perfect, no father can be perfect. Yet, sons and daughters do not expect perfection. What do they expect? First, fathers need to accept their children for 'who they are' instead of 'who they wish them to be.' This was Thomas Lincoln's first mistake. Secondly, while a father must occasionally be firm in offering ethical instruction to his children, physical punishment only serves to create lifelong emotional scars rather than correct misbehavior. A violent hand also reveals emotional immaturity on the part of a parent - which usually ends in the child's loss of respect.
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To all the fathers who have given their sons and daughters their love, their time, their hope and their understanding over the years, you are indeed wished a very Happy Father's Day.
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(Photo: Abraham Lincoln - click on to enlarge. To see photos of Lincoln's father, mother and step-mother - and a 'unique' photo of Honest Abe, click onto KleosTimes in the link to the right and view postings on 12 June.)
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J Roquen

The Coming Feminist Revolution In Saudi Arabia

2011-06-05T12:39:00.011-04:00

Unlike other Arab nations, Saudi Arabia still forbids women to drive a car. The reason? As the home of both the Prophet Mohammad (570-632) and the religion of Islam, conservative religious and political leaders from Mecca to Riyadh (all men) decry any departure from their construction of Sharia law - law reputedly based on the two main religious texts of Islam - The Quran and The Hadith (the reputed sayings of Muhammad). Of course, neither work contains a statement on driving. However, the Saudi religious elite has long prohibited women from getting behind the wheel for fear that they will violate purdah - which calls for the separation of men and women. Even by the standards of conservative Islam, however, this line of argument is specious at best. If Muslim women can drive freely in Jordan, for example, without compromising purdah or their namus (honor), why should Saudi women be denied the opportunity to drive?
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In 2009, Saudi Princess Amira al-Taweel, an independent young woman, echoed the sentiments of her royal predecessor, Princess Lolwah al-Faisal, by publicly stating, "Certainly I'm ready to drive a car. I have an international driver's license, and I drive a car in all the countries I travel to." When her husband, a member of the House of Saud (the royal family), subsequently spoke in support of his wife and Saudi women on the subject, it served as a catalyst for action.
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Recently, a 32 year-old Saudi female computer consultant, Manal al-Sharif, had herself filmed criticizing the prohibition while driving a car - and she did not literally or figuratively stop there. She also called on all Saudi women to drive en masse on 17 June through Facebook and Twitter in a show of defiance against a nonsensical law. For her courageous stand, the Saudi government responded by breaking into and altering the content of her social media accounts and threw her in jail for ten days.
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A few days ago, Manal was released and awaits court judgment. According to reports, she apparently backtracked a bit and told Saudi authorities that she was not attempting to start a revolution. Rather, she was just trying to make the case that women ought to be allowed to drive in emergencies. If true, Manal will not be able to put the genie back in the bottle. Her cry to make 17 June a day of feminist liberation has been welcomed by young Saudi women from Jeddah on the Red Sea to Dammam on the Persian Gulf. Consider their plight under one of the most patriarchal societies in the world:
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1) Although they account for more than 2/3 of all university graduates (due to their preponderant numbers), Saudi women compose less than 10% of the workforce. If they do manage to gain entrance into a profession, they are expected to quit (through social coercion) within a few years.
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2) Saudi men still have the right to take as many as four wives at a time. This cruel practice upon women, especially the first wife, stands upon a few vague references to polygamy in the Quran and other writings deemed sacred to Islam.
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3) Saudi women are required to be chaperoned or at least receive permission from a male guardian to travel outside the house. Upon the death of a male spouse, a Saudi widow must ask her son for permission to travel. This custom has rankled Saudi women for centuries.
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4) Men may marry outside their faith, but a woman cannot marry a non-Muslim.
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These aspects of Saudi society are inconsistent with Islam and the principles of universal justice known by mankind and womankind around the world.
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When Saudi women start their engines in protest on 17 June to claim their right to drive, it may very well be the ignition of a longtime-coming feminist revolution. Any law or custom that denies mankind or womankind their fundamental right to lead a dignified life cannot be allowed to stand - anywhere.
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The road to freedom for Saudi women may be long and hard, but their drive for equality must finally begin.
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(Photo: Manal al-Sharif and imagery for the Women2Drive movement that calls on all Saudi women to drive on 17 June in defiance of the Saudi prohibition)
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To watch a short television report on Manal and the quest of Saudi women to drive, please click on the following link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT-3I5jg1xg
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J Roquen

I Remember Tiananmen, Spring 1989 (Part 3 of 3)

2011-05-31T06:47:00.012-04:00

By 1 June 1989, tens of thousands of protesters had gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to call for an end to political oppression. In the statue 'Goddess of Democracy,' a monument created by several creative art students out of papier mache and foam, the aspirations of hundreds of millions of Chinese were symbolized. Two nights later, the government ordered the military to clear the square by force. From 3-5 June, thousands of the unarmed Tiananmen protesters were arrested, shot and wounded or killed in the streets. For the last twenty-two years, the massacre that occurred over that forty-eight hour period has not only been omitted from Chinese history books (it is mendaciously dubbed 'The 4 June Incident') but it has also been expediently shelved by the US government and other democracies around the world in pursuit of 'larger' foreign policy objectives and corporate profits.
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In the years after Tiananmen, policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic repeatedly claimed that turning China into a free market economy would usher in democratic reforms. In short, this has not happened. Today's capitalist China, which still officially clings to a communist ideology, is no closer to democracy than two decades ago. In fact, the government of China has become more despotic since Tiananmen and is now one of the most tyrannical regimes in the world.
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Last month (8 April 2011), the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the US Department of State released an exhaustive report on China. This report is a compilation of information gathered from news outlets, NGOs focused on human rights and other verifiable, corroborative sources. The following paragraphs contain directly quoted passages from the report. While reading these facts, please consider one simple question, 'Should the West (including Japan and South Korea) continue to overlook the character of the regime in Beijing for larger economic and geopolitical considerations?'
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Selections from 'US State Department 2010 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: China'
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"A negative trend in key areas of the country's human rights record continued, as the government took additional steps to rein in civil society, particularly organizations and individuals involved in rights advocacy and public interest issues, and increased attempts to limit freedom of speech and to control the press, the Internet and Internet access. Efforts to silence political activists were stepped up, and increasingly the government resorted to extralegal measures including enforced disappearance, 'soft detention,' and strict house arrest, including house arrest of family members, to prevent the public of independent opinions. Public interest law firms that took on sensitive cases also continued to face harassment, disbarment of legal staff and closure."
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"During the year, security forces reportedly committed arbitrary or unlawful killings."
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"According to official media reports, 197 persons died and 1,700 were injured during the July 2009 rioting in Urumqi (northwest China). In November 2009, eight ethnic Uighurs and one ethnic Han were executed without due process for crimes committed during the riots."
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"In an October 2009 report, the NGO Human Rights Watch documented the disappearances of hundreds of Uighurmen and boys following the July 2009 protest in Urumqui."
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"According to a July 7 NGO report, democracy activist Xu Wanping, who founded the China Action Party after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre and was serving a 12-year sentence for 'inciting subversion of state power' was repeatedly subjected to solitary confinement in Yuzhou Prison, Jiangbei District, Chongquing. The longest period of such confinement reportedly lasted 11 months. Xu's mental and physical health have deteriorated, and he reportedly has not received adequate medical attention while incarcerated. Xu has been denied release on medical parole."
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"Government officials continued to deny holding any political prisoners...Tens of thousands of political prisoners remain incarcerated."
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"During the year, the government increased censorship and manipulation of the press and the Internet during sensitive anniversaries." (i.e. Tiananmen)
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"A 2005 state council regulation deemed personal blogs, computer bulletin boards, and cellphone text messages as part of the news media, which subjected these media to state restrictions on content. Internet service providers were instructed to use only domestic media-news postings, to record information useful for tracking users and their viewing habits, to install software capable of copying e-mails, and to end immediately transmission of 'subversive material'."
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"The government continued restrictions on academic and artistic freedom and political and social discourse at colleges, universities and research institutes. Instructors were told not to raise certain sensitive topics in class, such as the 1989 Tiananmen massacre."
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Toward A New Foreign Policy On China
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That was but a small portion of the State Department report. If read in its entirety (a copy of the report has been included in the link below), it further documents other abuses carried out the by Chinese government including torture, forced labor in prisons, arbitrary arrests, expansive police powers, 'arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home and correspondence' and censorship.
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Aside from its rapacious rule at home, Beijing also supports a number of dictatorships around the world. In 2007, China used its vote in the United Nations Security Council to defeat an attempt to impose sanctions on Sudan for conducting genocide in Darfur. Why? Sudan is a significant provider of oil to the rapidly growing Chinese economy. That action should not have been surprising to anyone. If Beijing has no compunction about murdering its own people, why would it place African lives over a barrel of oil?
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In a recent speech, President Obama praised the recent economic growth of Brazil, China and India as millions of destitute people in these countries have been lifted out of poverty. His statement was only partially correct. First, China has become a nation of two classes in recent years - the rich and the poor. In recent articles (including one in The Telegraph (UK), the disparity of wealth is at its highest level in thirty-one years - even the government has publicly stated its concern about its potential effect on 'stability.' Hence, the wealth earned by Chinese businesses largely winds up in the hands of the monied elites and the government. Secondly, China, unlike Brazil and India, is very nearly if not in fact a fascist state. Any material gains made by the people of China have come at the price of individual freedom.
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The West must restructure its foreign policy toward China. Rather than continuing to depend on China as a cheap manufacturing base and purchaser of US debt, it is time to divest from China and relocate industries to developing nations that are democratic, respect the rule of law and uphold the standards of the international community. Are not India, Brazil and several emerging African countries far more deserving of Western capital? Western divestment led to the end of South Africa's brutally racist apartheid government, and it can lead to an end of the post-Tiananmen police state in China.
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By looking the other way, ignoring the violent nature of the regime in Beijing and legitimizing the Chinese government through trade, we are betraying both the Chinese people and everything we stand for as people dedicated to a world where 'right makes might' rather than vice versa. In remembering the Tiananmen massacre of 3-5 June 1989, we are not simply recalling a past crime. We are also considering the present reality of China today - a reality fraught with repression and violence.
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History has many lessons, and one of those lessons is quite clear. Those who collaborate with tyranny - ultimately come to ruin.
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J Roquen
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Photo: A Tibetan Monk being harassed by Chinese security forces. China invaded Tibet in 1950, and it remains under the military control of China today.
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To read the Department of State Human Rights Report on China, please click onto the following link: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/eap/154382.htm
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To watch the compiled footage of the Tiananmen massacre by a CBS reporter on 4 June 1989, please click onto the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAjxssiUa_

Let Freedom Ride, 1961-2011

2011-05-29T12:34:00.016-04:00

Nearly a century after the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on 6 December 1865, racial segregation, quite similar in many respects to the former apartheid of South Africa, still existed throughout much of the American south. After the US Supreme Court declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the burgeoning civil rights movement began to gather steam and confidence in its agenda to break racial barriers from Boston, Massachusetts to Biloxi, Mississippi.
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In 1961, two organizations, CORE (Congress Of Racial Equality) and SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), decided to act on a court ruling one year earlier that prohibited racial segregation in businesses that catered to interstate travelers. Restaurants at bus terminals in the south, for example, could not refuse service or segregate black visitors passing through on public transportation from northern states - where segregation was not officially practiced (although it certainly existed unofficially).
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On 4 May, the first of many 'Freedom Rides' took off from Washington, DC with six white and seven black people ultimately bound for New Orleans. The plan was both simple and powerful. Freedom Riders would get off the bus in the segregated south at various stops during the trip, walk into a restaurant, sit down together and attempt to order food. If asked to separate or leave, they would refuse. Why should they leave or separate? Common sense, truth and even the law was now on their side.
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The forces of bigotry and hatred mounted a vigorous counteroffensive. In Alabama, Freedom Riders were refused service and physically attacked by the Ku Klux Klan (a violent racist organization). In Mississippi, they were arrested and thrown in jail. These ugly intimidation tactics were completely counterproductive, however. Millions of Americans gravitated to the cause of the Freedom Riders after seeing these acts of brutality committed by bigoted law enforcement officials on television, and white Americans became ever-more conscious that Thomas Jefferson's revolutionary ideal of 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' had not been truly fulfilled for everyone.
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The Freedom Riders of Saudi Arabia, 2011
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Fifty years have passed since that momentous summer, and now another generation of Freedom Riders stands poised to challenge the forces of ignorance and oppression. Rather than the United States, freedom rides are being carried out and planned throughout Saudi Arabia to protest against nonsensical laws denying women the right to drive.
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Manal al-Sharif, a 32 year-old computer consultant, recently posted a YouTube video criticizing Riyadh's ban on female drivers while driving (illegally) herself. In the short clip, she called on her sisters over the Arabian Peninsula to drive en masse on 17 June to defy the prohibition. As soon as the government discovered her Internet activism, censors had her YouTube post removed. Even more audaciously, the government broke into her Twitter account and modified her call for action. Fortunately, however, her YouTube video and posted campaign plans were saved by followers and can be seen and read all over the worldwide web due to being picked up by the mainstream media.
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As we were all on the bus with the American Freedom Riders to gain justice for an underprivileged and oppressed group of people (either historically or in our spirits today), we must now be in the car with Manal and her sisters in their campaign for 'dignity' (a word Manal uses in her video) - the same dignity that the Freedom Riders of 1961 struggled to achieve.
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We are one people and one world, and it is our obligation to stand up for anyone being denied his or her human rights. Humanity has been on the road to a world without prejudice for centuries, and the race to the finish line will require uncommon tenacity and an unshakable faith in a better future.
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As such, we must say to these brave women of Saudi Arabia, who are fighting not only for themselves but on behalf of all people oppressed around the globe, 'Ladies, start your engines.'
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(Photo: A 'Freedom Rider' bus set on fire by forces of intolerance in Alabama, 1961)
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To watch Manal's YouTube video, which carries subtitles in English, please click onto the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sowNSH_W2r0ink:
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J Roquen

I Remember Tiananmen, Spring 1989 (Part 2 of 3)

2011-05-25T07:01:00.006-04:00

In May 1989, the world watched and anxiously waited to see how the Chinese government would respond to mass protests in Tiananmen Square - just outside the seat of government. On the night of 3 June, the leaders in Beijing gave their answer. Thousands of the unarmed protesters were arrested, wounded or killed in cold blood by military forces. The Communist dictatorship decided that a massacre was a small price to pay to remain in power.
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Now it is time to use a little first person English - a rare event in this journal. In the first installment of this three-part series, it was contended that the annual candlelight vigils in Hong Kong to honor the Tiananmen protesters had been fading in recent years. Happily, I was wrong, and I regret the error. In fact, the yearly, 4 June vigil turned out a record number of participants on the twentieth anniversary of the tragedy (2009) - an amazing 150,000. Last year, 113,000 people came together for the event. While this correction is inspiring, it also underscores a larger and more disturbing point. As opposed to the good people of Hong Kong, why have Western governments (US, UK, Europe) swept the crimes committed by the Chinese government in 1989 under the rug for the past two decades? First, an analogy is needed.
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Over the last few months, the Syrian government has fired on peaceful demonstrators in the streets calling for democracy. Women, who have led many of the protests, have been targeted by the security forces. While many female activists have been thrown in prison, others have been shot and killed outright. In response to the brutality shown by Damascus, President Obama and the EU called for President Assad to step down and imposed economic sanctions. This was a proper course of action. Now I (a little more first person) would like you to imagine something. Imagine if President Obama and the leaders of the European Union reacted to the heinous crimes of the Syrian government with greatly expanded trade, large capital investments and virtually no criticism. That would be irrational and unethical, right? Well, that is exactly how the West, particularly the US government, reacted to China after the Tiananmen Square massacre. How can that be explained? In order to answer this question, it will be necessary to revisit the mindset of the foreign policy elites in the late Cold War.
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In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) made an historic visit to China for the twin purposes of courting the Soviet Union's most formidable Asian rival and diverting the attention of the American people from the lost cause of the Vietnam War. While cynical in nature, the new relationship between Washington and Beijing was a brilliant stroke of grand strategy by both the US and China in balancing the expansionist designs of the Kremlin. Although Nixon deserves some credit for the initiative, the actual architect of the new China policy was US National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger (b. 1923). As an intellectual disciple of nineteenth century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), Kissinger, a Harvard PhD, is a proponent of Bismarck's realpolitik - whereby strategic interests are placed above all other considerations - including values. To suggest that realpolitik is not consistent with the ideals of a democratic state would be a gross understatement. Realpolitik is a cold, ruthless form of statecraft that ultimately pivots on the Machiavellian notion that 'the end justifies the means.' Not only is this profoundly wrong and unethical but it is also bad policy.
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In his new book On China (2011), Kissinger praises Chinese Communist state founder Mao Zedong (1893-1976) as "the philosopher king." Despite the fact that tens of millions of Chinese lost their lives under his despotic regime, Kissinger believes that Mao's "excesses" may ultimately be forgiven if China becomes a superpower and "remains united." One of those "excesses," the famine caused by Mao's 'Great Leap Forward' policy (1958-61), resulted in at least 20 million needless deaths in a drive toward industrialization. One historian with access to key Chinese archives has recently placed that number closer to 45 million. Again, that is just one "excess" during Mao's tenure. According to scholars Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao was responsible for more than 70 million Chinese lives lost during his 1949-1976 reign.
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On Tiananmen, Kissinger writes, "Like most Americans, I was shocked by the way the Tiananmen protest was ended. But unlike most Americans, I had had the opportunity to observe the Herculean task Deng (Deng Xiaoping, 1904-1997) had undertaken for a decade and a half to remold his country; moving Communists toward decentralization and reform; traditional Chinese insularity toward modernity and a globalized world." Note Kissinger's calculated phraseology - "how the Tiananmen protest ended" - with no reference to violence. Kissinger's realpolitik-based foreign policy simply discounts people. It is a game of the powerful, for the powerful and by the powerful - a game where people are pawns on a chessboard. If one's opponent sacrifices half of his pawns (the means) to achieve victory (the end), he is a master and deserves admiration. That, essentially, is Kissinger's view of not only Mao and Deng but also of the world, and it is a view that must be categorically rejected.
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The basis of American foreign policy had thus been set toward China well-before the beginning of the presidency of George H.W. Bush (father of George W. Bush) in January 1989. Six months after the Tiananmen Massacre, Bush defended his decision to send a high-level delegation of American diplomats to Beijing stating, "(China) is a billion-plus people. They have a strategic position in the world that is important to us...I do not want to isolate the Chinese people (17 December 1989, New York Times)." Sound familiar? This was the Kissinger-Nixon line at work. Over the next year, relations between Washington and Beijing were 'normalized,' and Western corporations and companies began to accelerate the pace of relocating their manufacturing facilities to the "billion-plus" country with an almost unlimited supply of cheap labor.
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Western governments believed investment in China would create a middle-class capable of negotiating more rights for the people as a whole in the future. While perhaps not an unreasonable policy toward a benign, semi-democratic state, the idea of maintaining normal, diplomatic ties and investing in a state that brazenly murders its own people is antithetical to every ideal Western democracies are founded upon. As a result of this twisted policy, Western consumers, who buy untold quantities of cheap, Chinese goods every year, now finance Beijing's oppression.
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When the people of Hong Kong stand together on 4 June every year to say "I Remember Tiananmen, Spring 1989," they are doing more than remembering a crime by the Chinese government - a crime erased from the history books and from official memory in China. They are reminding us both of the past and current nature of the Chinese regime. In short, the world has an inescapable obligation to the Chinese people and itself. Beijing must be held accountable for its human rights abuses and blatant disregard for the standards of the international community. This will be the subject of the final installment (part three) next Tuesday.
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(Photo: Of all the images of Tiananmen, this one of a man who halted several tanks by refusing to budge is probably the most famous. He has been known as 'tankman' ever since that day.)
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To watch an incredible video of 'tankman' facing down a column of tanks on 5 June 1989, please click onto the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-nXT8lSnPQ
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J Roquen

Goodbye To All That (EU Club Mix)

2011-05-22T12:25:00.009-04:00

In 1929, Robert Graves (1895-1985), a British novelist and poet, published his autobiography. At the time, he was all of thirty-four years old. Why did he decide to write a history of his life only three and a half decades on? It was precisely because part of it had been taken away by the First World War. After witnessing senseless violence and horrific atrocities, Graves was left a haunted man, and his book seemed to be an attempt to put those jarring memories behind him.
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Thankfully, there is no war in Europe today. However, it would not be quite accurate to state that Europe is at peace either. When President Obama sets foot on French soil in a few days, he will be standing at the center of a fractious continent - riven by economic and political discord. Due to intractable levels of unemployment, cuts in social programs and corrupt politics, the European Union has never looked more vulnerable.
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Similar to the revolts and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, mass movements calling for reform have been the order of the day for much of Europe over the last year. Something must be done. When it comes to the great recession that began in 2007-08, Europeans have wanted to say 'Goodbye to all that,' but an economic recovery has not been forthcoming. Hence, millions of people across the Continent have been on the march to say 'goodbye' to their governments - governments that have served their own elite interests rather than the interests of their citizens. Here is a brief roundup of the discontent.
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Belgium
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In March, a sizable crowd (approximately 20,000), supported by the largest trade unions in Belgium, protested against policies fashioned by French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor Merkel outside the EU Summit in Brussels. Both Sarkozy and Merkel have endorsed plans to keep wages down in order to allow EU nations to produce goods at lower cost and thus be more competitive in the international marketplace. When part of the crowd became hostile, the police unleashed tear gas and water cannons.
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Greece, Germany and Italy
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Last year, Athenians may have made more headlines than Demosthenes (384-322BC) did in his day by rioting in the streets over proposed (and enacted) austerity measures. The streets of the Greek capital have not calmed down quite yet. Two weeks ago, the two largest labor unions sponsored a general strike and helped turn out 30,000 disaffected citizens. Germany has witnessed protests over both EU policies and against nuclear power in the last few months. Since the German parliament voted to help bailout bankrupt Greece in early 2010 with a 22.4 billion Euro loan, Germans have become increasingly skeptical of the EU and Angela Merkel. In Italy, large numbers of women (and quite a few men) poured onto the streets in February to express their disgust with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his salacious behavior toward the opposite sex. Italians were not just motivated by his personal shortcomings, however. Berlusconi is considered by many as a symbol of everything wrong with Italian politics - elitism, corruption and arrogance.
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Portugal and Spain
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In Portugal, people between the ages of 21-35 call themselves 'geracao a rasca' or 'the desperate generation' due to being unable to find remunerative employment. The unemployment rate for college graduates is between 25-30%. That figure, of course, does not count the underemployed - which would put the actual rate closer to 50%. In the absence of a job, these educated young people cannot move out of their parents' house or even think about starting a family. As there is nowhere to go and nothing to do, the Portuguese have taken to the streets to protest a government in Lisbon that has cut social spending in an attempt to put its finances on a path toward solvency. Of course, this has only made the middle and lower classes angrier. Why should they have to pay for irresponsible financial decisions made by incompetent or corrupt elites - especially at a time of economic want? This is the question all of Europe is asking, and nowhere is this question hotter right now than in the largest nation on the Iberian peninsula.
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In the last few days, enormous numbers of Spanish citizens, made up of people from all walks of life and of all ages, have joined one rally or another in cities nationwide to collectively call for an end to a political system dominated by the two largest political parties and a solution to the 20% overall unemployment rate and the staggering 45% youth unemployment rate. Once again, these numbers are conservative estimates. The actual rates are higher.
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In 1989, the courage of the protesters in Tiananmen Square (Beijing, China) served as a catalyst for subsequent protests against Communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe. When one person or one nation stands up and demands justice (whether economic, social, political or all three), then other people and other nations are inspired to follow suit. In Europe, many protesters have admitted to being motivated by the revolutions taking place in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa. Undoubtedly, it cuts both ways. Surely, some protesters in Egypt were moved by the protests in Greece last year.
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What are many nations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere ultimately trying to say? They are trying to say 'Goodbye to all that' - 'goodbye' to elitist politics that serve the few and not the many, 'goodbye' to empty promises and corruption and 'hello' to a future that affords every person the right to a job, health care and a full political voice. The world can accept no less.
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(Photo: A rather expressive protester in Madrid)
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(For additional photos of the protests in Spain, please click onto the KleosTimes link to the right)
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J Roquen

I Remember Tiananmen, Spring 1989 (Part 1 of 3)

2011-05-19T08:22:00.044-04:00

The Chinese government wants you to forget entirely. The US government would like you to remember but only within the larger context of its foreign policy.
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Yet, the world cannot afford to forget the events that occurred in Tiananmen Square from April to June 1989 - ever.
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When Hu Yaobang, a former high-level official who had advocated for reform prior to his dismissal two years earlier, died on 15 April, hundreds and then thousands of mourners began congregating in Tiananmen Square (Beijing) to express their collective sense of loss and frustration. Over the next few weeks, the crowd got larger and larger, and their grief turned to hope for a better future.
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Most but not all of the protesters were university students. Despite the efforts of the Chinese state-run propaganda machine (which still operates today), these young people were aware of the open debate and reform occurring in the Soviet Union under Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931). Two weeks before people began entering the square, the Polish trade union Solidarity had achieved a watershed victory by forcing the Soviet puppet government in Warsaw to recognize its union as a political party and schedule free elections. Undoubtedly, at least some of the Tiananmen protesters had heard of Poland's remarkable triumph over Communist dictatorship - and those who knew would likely have passed on the information to rally the gathering crowd.
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When the political authorities asked them to disperse, they refused. When requests turned to threats, the crowd ignored them. When the Politburo declared martial law on 20 May and attempted to send in the army to clear the area, protesters blocked their passage, and the soldiers went back to their barracks. In scenes that would be re-enacted in Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Prague, Sofia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe only months later, the protesters in Tiananmen Square became intoxicated with dreams of a free society. Day after day, they remained in the square - laughing, singing songs, chanting slogans of liberty and sharing friendship and food. The concept of 'stranger' all but disappeared. The people were the nation - one family with one voice.
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After forcing the military to back down, some protesters began leaving for fear of a second and more concerted attempt to break their demonstration. Still, approximately 10,000 people remained in the square. How to revitalize the crowd? A few weeks earlier when their numbers began to dwindle, several people went on a hunger strike to demonstrate their commitment and galvanize support. On 27 May, a few art students had another idea. Out of papier-mache, foam and other materials, these creative protesters constructed a white statue of a female and dubbed her the 'Goddess of Democracy.' Standing opposite of the portrait of Mao Zedong (1893-1976), the founder of the Chinese Communist state in 1949, the 'Goddess,' which symbolized truth, hope and the power of the people, stood in stark contrast to Mao's rule of tyranny, lies and murder.
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Rumors abounded that the Chinese military was split over the question of how to handle the situation, and the possibility of a civil war loomed. Somehow, the government was able to rein in most if not all of its wavering commanders at a critical moment.
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In the late evening of 3 June, several military units attacked the square. Tanks rolled through the streets. Cries of joy and hope now turned to screams of fear and agony. While the exact figure may never be known, hundreds - and more likely - thousands of people were murdered and wounded over the next forty-eight hours by the armed forces. Many other protesters, who were fortunate to escape physically unharmed, were rounded up and sent to prison. More than one hundred Tiananmen protesters remain in jail today.
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In recent years, the annual candlelight vigils held in Hong Kong to honor the courage and the sacrifices made by the protesters have experienced record attendance, but a whole new post-Tiananmen generation of Chinese, now just graduating university, has little to no knowledge of the inspiring movement or the crimes carried out by their government in Tiananmen Square from April to June 1989.
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For the sake of all those who are fighting for economic, social and political justice around the world, we must emphatically proclaim with one united voice,
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'I Remember Tiananmen, Spring 1989'
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(Photo: The 'Goddess of Democracy' stands opposite to the portrait of Mao in Tiananmen Square, Spring 1989. Soldiers destroyed the monument to freedom a few days later.)
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To view a chilling, live report from BBC NEWS on 4 June 1989 in Tiananmen Square, click onto the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJBnHMpHGRY

J Roquen

Need Revolution? Call A Young Muslim Woman

2011-05-16T06:42:00.027-04:00

Of course, you could text a young, Muslim woman if you needed revolutionary advice, but then you would miss the most powerful element in her radical repertoire - her voice. And that beautiful voice is being heard all around the world.
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For the most part, their rise to political prominence began two years ago as millions of young, female Iranians dressed in green (the color of the anti-Ahmadinejad, anti-clerical coalition) and poured out onto the streets of Tehran, Isfahan and other cities across the nation to protest the sham elections and the sham religious state. For the leaders of Iran, religion is but a means to exploit its citizens for power and wealth. And how did the corrupt, self-appointed ruling class respond to the courageous, idealistic activism shown by their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters? They unleashed their private security forces to beat, arrest and murder the unarmed protesters (both male and female) in cold blood. One young female protester, known as 'Neda,' was killed by a bullet fired indiscriminately - for simply walking with her friends in a peaceful demonstration.
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Over the past few months, young, Muslim women have been on the march across North Africa and the Middle East, and they are the most inspiring force of historical change to come along since the Eastern European revolutions and the Tiananmen uprising of 1989.
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Three elements of their approach set these revolutionaries apart from all others. First, they are organized at a grass-roots level. One need not know a single word of Arabic, French or Farsi to see that these women have put together a program of activism from the bottom-up. Just by looking at the photos of their campaigns, it is easy to discern that they have vigorously networked, formed alliances with like-minded groups and individuals and planned a comprehensive strategy. Second, they have taken up the principles of non-violence. While these young, female revolutionaries are apt to block a highway (as was recently done in Syria), march in the streets and chant cries of reform, they neither throw stones nor endorse violence. Following in the footsteps of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., their struggle for freedom and equality is firmly rooted in moral force. As a result, these women have brought a countless number of young Muslim men over to their cause - to everyone's cause.
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Western nations, particularly the US and the UK, have criticized Islamic countries for failing to preclude violent radicalism with reform. Well US and UK, here are your reformers. Embrace them. Thirdly, these inspiring women have unified across religious and sectarian lines. While Coptic Christians, Jews and various sects of Muslims stood side by side in Egypt, Sunnis and Shias are now standing together across the Muslim world with one voice and one dream - a string of tolerant and free societies from Tripoli to Sana'a. What could be more inspiring?
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The governments and religious elites of Egypt, Iran, Syria, Libya and elsewhere have done everything possible to place and relegate women to secondary status for hundreds of years. In 2009 in Iran and in 2011 elsewhere in the Muslim world, a new generation of young, Muslim women decided that their time had come to stand against corruption and tyranny - and stand up for themselves. As a result, they are paying a high price. In Syria over the last month, the state has declared war against its discontented young women. Hundreds and perhaps thousands have been arrested. According to the latest news wires, approximately 850 male and female unarmed protesters have been killed by the government. A few days ago, security forces brazenly killed four women in a small town near the Mediterranean as part of a new campaign directly aimed to silence women through intimidation, arrest and murder. Why have the governments of Iran and Syria resorted to brutality against their unarmed female populations? It is because they rightly understand one important truth. Women constitute the most potent force for real change the Muslim world has ever witnessed.
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Quite similar to any revolution waged for human dignity, it is a tale of both triumph and tragedy. If these young, Muslim women are as resilient as they appear, the story they are making will have a happy ending for their generation - and generations to come.
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(Photo: Syrian women protesting their government)
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J Roquen

10 May 1940: A Dinosaur Becomes A Lion

2011-05-08T13:20:00.028-04:00

When Winston Churchill (1874-1965) entered 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister for the first time on 10 May 1940, it was the culmination one the greatest (if not the greatest) comebacks in political history. Until Britain's very survival was in question, he was resolutely ignored, derided and considered a dinosaur.

Churchill's largest endeavor in the twentieth century until 1940 had been his plan and orchestration of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign during the First World War in 1915-16. That failure to capture Constantinople came a cost of more than 100,000 Allied casualties. After spending a quarter of a century in the political wilderness since the end of WWI, the dinosaur was transformed overnight into a lion in the eyes of his countrymen. But why?

Throughout the 1930s, the British government had proven to be quite adept at ignoring the gathering threats in Berlin and Rome. Not Churchill. In 1934, he wrote a critical newspaper column stating,

"I marvel at the complacency of the Ministers in the face of frightful experiences through which we have so newly passed. I look with wonder upon our thoughtless crowds disporting themselves in the summer sunshine, (and all the while across the North Sea), a terrible process is astir. Germany is arming."

Churchill was the only significant figure who understood the dangerous nexus of Germany's 'secret' re-militarization and the nature of the Nazism and the Nazi leader. In modern terms, he had 'connected the dots.' Meanwhile, Britain was foolishly allowing the Bank of England to loan money to Hitler's regime - thus saving the Nazi state from financial crisis.

How could the British people and the Bank of England have been so blind? There were three very powerful reasons. First, the idea of another war after the horrific conflict of 1914-1918 was simply unthinkable. The entire world had undergone a deep, collective psychological reaction to WWI. As many believed the war to have been pointless and unnecessary, another one was simply out of the question in the minds of the masses. Secondly, a significant number of Europeans thought the Versailles Treaty of 1919 was overly harsh on Germany. If Berlin now wanted an army and a bit of territory to offset the unfair agreement fifteen years later, it was only understandable. Finally, Britain and the world were already fighting a war - an economic war - in trying to come out of the Great Depression. Hence, defense spending was to be limited or cut in times of financial distress - even as Hitler increased his war budget.

From the beginning of his three-year tenure as prime minister in 1937, Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), embodied all three components of this outlook - one which resulted in a policy of appeasement. Despite the fact that Hitler had 1) withdrawn from the League of Nations in 1933, 2) initiated a large-scale rearmament program and 3) forward-deployed military units in the Rhineland (1936), Prime Minister Chamberlain told the Soviet ambassador, "If we could only sit down at a table with the Germans and run through all their complaints and claims with a pencil, this would greatly relieve all tensions." Chamberlain, who had previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, was clearly ill-suited for his new position.

In 1938, Chamberlain met Hitler in Munich and gave away part of Czechoslovakia to keep the peace. When he came home, he famously proclaimed (on 30 September), "My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British prime minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. Go home and get a nice, quiet sleep."

The British public cheered and went to bed. Churchill, however, probably did not sleep well that night. He understood Hitler's intentions all too well. Hitler had just humiliated the British Empire with a diplomatic sleight of hand, and he was not finished yet. Six weeks later, Hitler unleashed pogroms on his defenseless Jewish population. Due to the smashing of Jewish shop and synagogue windows, the infamous event became known as 'Kristallnacht' or 'Night of broken glass.' As ninety-one Jews were murdered and approximately 30,000 were rounded up and sent to concentration camps that night, it was a dark harbinger of an even greater evil to come.

On 15 March 1939, Hitler's armies absorbed the rest of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain and his government, including the arch-appeaser, Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax (1881-1959), had no answer. As a result, German tanks rolled through Poland less than six months later, and both the Polish government and Chamberlain's government collapsed thereafter.

What had been politically incomprehensible became reality when Churchill became prime minister on 10 May 1940. The response to his rise to the office was mixed at best. Three days later in the House of Commons, the Chamberlain Conservatives greeted him with silence. Upon stating "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat," Churchill's audience got the message. The time for diplomacy and appeasement was over.

In his first speech as prime minister, which was made as the German army was marching through France, Churchill galvanized the country. His words marked a complete transformation of British policy and mindset, and they are as remarkable today as they were in 1940.

"You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.

You ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word: it is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be."

After years of being regarded as a dinosaur - a political 'has-been' - Churchill took the helm of the British Empire and fought for the freedom of the world alone until the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. This sixty-five year old man, who wore a bow tie, smoked large cigars and used a walking stick, had been right about Hitler all along.

In the eyes of the British public, the dinosaur had become a lion. And for his courageous and unyielding stance against despotism, that lion is rightly considered a 'great man' in history.

(Photo: Churchill outside 10 Downing Street on 10 May 1940 with Kingsley Wood (left) and future PM Anthony Eden (right). Click on picture to enlarge)

J Roquen

Matronalia

2011-05-01T10:42:00.013-04:00

For Slovenia, it is on 25 March. If you live in Russia, this day of recognition occurs on 27 November. Citizens of France, Morocco, Haiti, Sweden, Bolivia and Poland have until the end of the month (May) to find a gift, and those in Hungary, Lithuania, Mozambique, Portugal and Spain presented their cards last week. Most of the world, however, will be celebrating Mother's Day on Sunday, 8 May.

What would we do without mothers? She is by far the hardest working member of the family. She may work full time at a job outside the house, and then return to a full-time job (that no one else wants) inside the house. She rarely has a day off. Then again, she may not know how to take a day off anymore. Why? It is because she works for her family out of pure love. In particular, she wants the very best for her children - and maybe even for her husband.

A true mother is made of two main ingredients: unflinching loyalty and endless compassion. She will never let you down and always listen to your concerns, and she will be your mother whether you are 14 or 64 years old. You can always count on her to care about you. Period.

In ancient Rome, humanity understood how important a mother was to both her family and society. On 1 March, Romans celebrated Matronalia - a holiday dedicated to appreciating not only mothers but all women. The goddess Juno (or Hera in the Greek pantheon), daughter of Saturn and guardian of women, was worshipped for her powers over childbirth. Married couples visited a temple on the Esquiline, one of the seven hills of Rome, presented flowers and asked Juno to bless their marriage. By wearing loose garments and taking out the braids in their hair, young married women symbolically asked the goddess to help them bring forth children.

This was more than just a day for wives, however. While married women and girls received gifts from their husbands and lovers respectively, female slaves were given a feast by their mistresses. Hence, everyone feasted on Matronalia - a celebration of motherhood, womanhood and all of humanity.

Indeed, a nation or a society can be judged by how it treats its women. Governments that prohibit women from enjoying equal access to education, jobs and an equal voice in political affairs are not legitimate governments. They are patriarchal tyrannies.

One prominent example is Iran. The religious leaders (all male) in Iran interpret the Koran to maintain their patriarchal power. Fatimah (605-632AD), born on 20 May to the Prophet Muhammad, has been traditionally regarded as a role model for women for supporting her father in difficult times, and she serves as the symbol for Mother's Day in Iran.

It is her mother, Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (555-619AD), who might best serve as an exemplar for Muslim women in the 21st century, however. Supposedly, the Prophet was attracted to her for being fiercely independent and an able and shrewd businesswoman. Legend says that it was she - not Muhammad - who first broached the subject of marriage. Does she not sound beautiful? And she was beautiful because she was allowed to be a full partner in society - as all women deserve to be full partners in all societies. Ultimately, we are not a world of men and women. We are a world of human beings.

In 1832, the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), nicknamed the 'Soul of Italy,' made a profoundly correct assessment of women and told his fellow men,

"Love and respect woman. Look to her not only for comfort, but for strength and inspiration and the doubling of your intellectual and moral powers. Blot out from your mind any idea of superiority; you have none."

To all the mothers and all the women who have made sacrifices throughout the world and throughout history, we are eternally indebted. And you are wished a Happy Mother's Day.

(Picture: Juno - Jupiter's wife, Click on to enlarge)

J Roquen

Christina Rossetti: Beautifully Human

2011-04-24T12:21:00.007-04:00

Where will you wake up tomorrow morning? Will it be in a bed under a repressive regime in Tehran? Will you arise in the beautiful city of Ljubljana, Slovenia - or Kiev, Ukraine perhaps? Will you first see the sun from a window in San Francisco, California or from one in Sao Paulo, Brazil? Will light first shine upon you in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia or in Johannesburg, South Africa? In one sense, it will not matter where you are when the day begins tomorrow. For you and everyone around the world has - and has always had - one core desire in common.

You want to be loved, and you want to give your love to others.

In an age of bullet-speed trains, 4G wireless networks, careerism, mass poverty, discouraging headlines and pollution, it has become all too easy to forget why we get up in the morning. Yes, we must work. Yes, we must make money and put food on the table, and yes, we must help others less fortunate as unselfishly and to the greatest extent possible. But all of our efforts would be hollow without the people we hold dearest to us - the people we love and the people who love us. Whether those that we love are living, dead or separated from us by time and space, they define our lives through days of joy and in the darkest of hours.

This is a universal truth that Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) and all true poets of any age understand. As such, poets are indispensable in reminding us of what makes us 'beautifully human'.

On 5 December 1830, Christina was born in London. As her Italian family suffered financial hardships during her teenage years, her pain and loneliness turned to poetry. For the world, this was indeed a fortunate occurrence.

To celebrate the arrival of National Poetry Month once again in the United States, one of Christina's poems, 'Remember' has been reproduced below. It is dedicated to all the women around the globe who are fighting against oppression - and for a world of hope, compassion and equality.

Remember

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you plann'd:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

(Picture: Christina Rossetti)

J Roquen