Do not covet your neighbor’s oil! 3-8-2021

 

8, March 2021                     Do not covet your neighbor’s oil!

Prior to 1953, Iranians were pro American and pro-British. Scores of bright students ventured abroad to seek advanced degrees in some of the most elite colleges in the UK and US.

I was living in UK at the time and remember the “UK tabloids mocked and denigrated Mosaddeq as the “weeping” PM.

All that changed in 1953 when Britain’s super spy agency, MI6 sought the help of the CIA to overthrow the burgeoning democracy of Premier Mohammad Mosaddeq and replaced him with the Shah of Iran. The Shah quickly consolidated power and imposed a blanket of self-censorship with the aid of his dreaded secret police, the Savak. Thousands of activists were jailed or “disappeared.” America’s stooge was finally removed with the return of Ayatollah Khomeini who quickly established a theocracy.

Iranians expressed their solidarity with the Palestinians in Israel who retaliated  by killing a number of their prominent nuclear scientists. . The British, the US and the European Union remained silent in complete solidarity with the Israeli  killers. Fast forward to the historic nuclear accord signed in 2015. Sadly, a big bad American wolf was waiting to destroy the accord. On a pique of self-importance he withdrew US support much to the   chagrin of the signatures to  the agreement. Boasting he could force a regime change, Trump introduced crippling sanctions which hurt the most vulnerable, - the women of Iran who have been working for reform for decades.

The sanctions restricted oil sales and access to the global banking system, and pushed the economy into a deep recession.

 

Since 2018, the Iranian Rial has lost 68 percent of its value. In March 2020, inflation soared around 41 percent; today it hovers around 30 percent The decimation of Iran’s economy is impacting the lives of the very constituency that has been working for reform and liberalization. The slump is tearing away at their fragile gains in employment, upper management positions and leadership roles in the arts and higher education, while reducing their capacity to seek legal reforms and protections. No, Mr. Trump you have intensified anti-American sentiments and especially hurt marginalized Iranian women who were desperately trying to survive and seek a better life.

Sanctions, regime change, and covert operations are all part of the American playbook. Excessively cruel and antithetical to Christ’s teaching.  Shame on America and the UK.  Don’t. you ever read the Bible? Deuteronomy 5:21 21"You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor INCLUDING OIL!."

Yemen, “Hell on Earth” 3-18-2021

18, March 2021                  Yemen,  “Hell on Earth”

 

The World Food Program is warning Yemen is heading towards the largest famine in modern history, with the U.N. agency projecting around 400,000 Yemeni children under the age of 5 could die from acute malnutrition. Saudi war planes continue to drop their lethal US payloads on a predominately civilian population. The tight Saudi embargo is preventing fuel and food from reaching the starving population , making the Saudi’s, and the US guilty of war crimes.

 

Jane Ferguson reporting for PBS Newshour and CNN senior  international correspondent Nima Elbagir says Yemen is a “hell on Earth.”  Their courageous reporting inside Yemen describe the devastating impact of the war on civilians. The widespread fuel shortages is affecting all aspects of life.  On the road to Hodeidah port, Nina witnessed hundreds of stalled food supply trucks unable to move because of the chronic shortage of fuel their cargoes rotting in the sun. The Port of Hodeidah is the supply gateway for the rest of country and was usually bustling with activity prior to the US-Saudi backed embargo. It is now eerily silent.  Since the Yemen war started six years ago, families have been in dire financial freefall. The fuel blockade has severely impacted all civilian life. The unpaid physician at a local hospital showed Nima one of his critical patients in the therapeutic feeding center. A 10-year-old girl whose growth has been so stunted by starvation, she could no longer stand. Parents are so distraught watching their children of hunger. Busy hospitals are running out of the vital fuel that keeps its generators running. If they stop hundreds of patients will surely die. President Biden could use the power of the presidency to bring this insane civil war to an end. First he should apologize for decades of US interference in Iran’s internal affairs acknowledging the CIA-British MI6 theft of Iranian oil and orchestrating a coup to overthrow democratic leader Mosaddeq in 1953. He should then restore the 2015 nuclear accord with no preconditions, and immediately lift the crippling sanctions. The Iranian people should not suffer because former President Trump in a fit of pique chose to unilaterally withdraw from the 2015 nuclear treaty. Following normalization of relations with Iran, President Biden should broker a cease fire and peace treaty with the Saudis and the Iranian backed Houthis. To use soft language of recalibrating US relationship with Saudis is tantamount to maintaining  the unacceptable status quo. We should NOT be allies with a nation which continues to live in the stone age relegating the role of Saudi women to a life of servitude.

 

Amazon slave workers 3-16-2021

 

16, March 2021                    Amazon slave workers

Amazon delivery drivers are forced to work 14-hour days with no bathroom breaks. Their  deliveries are carefully monitored by the home office to ensure no delays occur, not  even for the call of nature. Many workers on the shop floor have used diapers to avoid bathroom breaks. Fourteen-hour shifts are common because delivery service providers wouldn’t allow drivers to return any packages from their routes and the pressure to meet delivery rates forced divers to use plastic bottles to urinate.  

Any time a van is off the scheduled route or stops for longer than three minutes, an alert is sent to the delivery service provider. Amazon encourages the delivery service owners to cut down on “unscheduled” stops. Drivers would then receive call from the dispatcher which added valuable time to their scheduled deliveries. To avoid such confrontations, drivers would skip “pit stops” and use plastic bottles rendering package deliveries very unhygienic.

Amazon uses contractors for delivery services, making it exceedingly difficult for workers to protect their interests by establishing a union.  Delivery service providers have a financial incentive for pushing their hapless drivers to the brink because they are paid bonuses on metrics such as targeted routes completion percentages. 

Amazon has publicly opposed unionization and recently launched a vigorous anti-union campaign  of a union election vote at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. Mass text ads were sent to workers encouraging them to vote against the union.

Amazon is effectively abdicating its responsibility by creating a firewall, loaning money to subcontractors to gain access to their vans to offload corporate responsibility of its workers.

Amazon drivers are paid $15 an hour compared to UPS drivers, who are represented by the powerful Teamsters, and are paid a base wage of $21 per hours rising to $40 or more.

Drivers for Amazon contractors have also complained of “big brother surveillance” cameras watching their activities inside their vans and a tracking app, Mentor, to monitor bathroom breaks. This is a particular hardship for female drivers who desperately look for a grocery store to take bathroom breaks which averages 10 minutes. Most complained of this AI technology invading their privacy. Drivers for Amazon delivery service providers also face fear of retaliation for trying to organize in their workplaces.

In the meantime CEO Jeff Bezos make more in 12 seconds than his lowest paid workers makes annually.

    

Harry & Meghan 3-10-2021

 

10, March 2021                               Harry & Meghan

I grew up in a working class neighborhood in Birmingham England, a city that used to be known as the “black country.” It gained its name because of its smokey atmosphere from large scale steel furnaces.

It was also the center of large scale manufacturing, a favorite target of German bombing raids during the second World War.

 Going to school I quickly realized we were “different” (light skinned Sikhs with turbans) and were often exposed to racial slurs sometimes morphing into fist fights. The racism of the 30’s was deep rooted until the late 90’s when a large number of brown and black immigrants changed the demographics in a profound way. In some school districts the heavy influx of immigrants most notably in Southall, a large suburban district in West London.  “Punjabi”  students outnumbered the local white Brits. Predictably there no more bullying where the local whites were no match against their husky brown school mates 

My dad was a medical doctor who through enormous perseverance  established a private practice in one of Birmingham’s unfriendly suburbs.

Occasionally, my parents took us to various holiday resorts but alas the reception was frosty and unwelcome. I experienced great difficulty gaining employment because of systemic racism but once  I was hired I was warmly accepted. My sense of humor which I acquired from wonderful British comedians, had a lot to do with changing attitudes but only within the confines of the work place. Once I left the safety of my company, I was just another unwanted “foreigner.”

Racism was raging up to the year I left the UK in 1967. Advertising in newsagents bulletin boards were replete with overt racism. Example, “2 br. flat for rent, no pakis colored, . . “). Employment opportunities carried similar exclusions. One “barrow boy” (a vegetable seller) who I befriended,  whispered“ you’re ok mate, it’s those “darkies” I don’t like, to which I replied “you’re ok mate it’s those other “whites” I can’t stand!” One company interview I recollect was with a large computer company offering programming courses to its customers. 15 minutes into the interview my future boss leaned forward and asked me whether I spoke English! I gasped with an Oprah response, WHHHAAT? “”sir, I was born in the UK and English is the only language I can speak fluently”.  

Having experienced British “hospitality” for many years I watched the Meghan- Harry interview with rapt attention. Perhaps Meghan had never been exposed to American racism given she was of mixed race , very attractive and had a very successful acting career prior to meeting Prince Harry. It was no surprise that her wedding was parlayed with great gusto by the UK media. But once she failed to play her role of a perpetual on demand smiling “princess” the “palace guard” froze Harry’s palace salary, withdrew his security and Meghan’s palace title. Rejected and bereft of financial security to keep them alive, it is not at all surprising that Megan fell into acute depression and suicidal thoughts. The “skin tone” comment of their future son, Archie came as no surprise. The thought of having a future “colored” king was clearly unacceptable.

The palace  “firm” and upper echelons of British society  desperately cling  on to the only relic of their former glory, as head of the Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth, perhaps the last bastion of royalty soldiers on supported by its seniors but has not endeared herself to Britain’s younger population. Furthermore, many citizens of the Commonwealth resent being subservient to the British crown.

A recent British poll taken after the Oprah interview reported over 50% of younger Brits thought that Meghan was treated very poorly and voiced doubts as to the relevance of the monocracy. In sharp contrast, the over 60’s reported that the palace had treated her well. One twitter that caught my eye:

ONCE AGAIN AMERICA WILL DEFEAT THE BRITISH MONARCHY BY SPILLING TEA

Some of us still remember when King Edward was forced to abdicate after he married an American divorcee, Wallace Simpson. Even the beautiful, charming princess Diana invited to the gilded cage soon fell out of favor hounded by a hostile media who reported her struggles with bulimia and her extra marriage dalliances.

One comment made by Meghan was extremely revealing.

To ensure the tabloids report favorable coverage of the royal family  Buckingham Palace hosts regular parties for the tabloids.

Perhaps it it’s time to honor Elizabeth as the last queen of a failing “empire.” 

Prince Charles has long abdicated his duties as a farther and grandfather. It is a mystery how his son, Andrew,  continues to enjoy all the palace perks after his association with Epstein became known. Andrew stayed at Epstein’s homes in New York and Florida as well as on his private island in the Caribbean where he allegedly participated  in sexual orgies with underage girls.

Does he still enjoy place security and a salary?  Isn’t this a double standard.

 In a period where people of the world are demanding respect and equality it’s time to convert Bucking Place and other palaces belonging to the “Crown” as anachronistic relics - to hotels. No more curtsying and bowing humiliating gestures denoting high and low, vestiges of a construct of British palace history. One final request, to the reigning queen please ask the “firm” to return the stolen jewelry from the former colonies back to their rightful owners.

 

U.S. Should Hold MBS Accountable 3-8-2021

   March 08, 2021                U.S. Should Hold MBS Accountable

 

President Biden’s response to MBS’s role in the brutal torture and murder of Saudi dissident Khashoggi was extremely disappointing.

Desperate to deflect blame, MBS threw former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency “under the bus” and said he was the ring leader responsible for the killing and named several other Saudi officials.

Biden said it was up Saudi Arabia to determine the path forward on their future leadership. Do US officials plan to host and shake hands with one the world’s worst assassins? What happened to the much touted American values?

While the U.S. continues to pummel Iran with unjust crippling economic sanctions for a 2015 nuclear treaty that America failed to uphold, the Biden administration is giving MBS a free pass. Swift action is paramount given King Salman's age and poor health. 

Failure to punish MBS puts Saudi exiles in grave danger and gives carte blanch impunity to the crown prince who would likely go after dissidents with renewed vigor. One such dissident who chose to go public is halid Aljabri, the son of a former senior Saudi official who is living in exile in Canada and whose siblings, Omar and Sarah, are being held hostage in the kingdom. 

Joe Biden speaking in November 2019 during a presidential debate promised emphatically” to punish the senior Saudi responsible for Khashoggi murder.” 

Tough words! So Joe, to what happened to your 2019 pledge? You promised a “recalibration of U.S. relationship with the Saudis. No Joe, what is needed is a recalibration of your moral compass? 

It is puzzling to understand why Saudi Arabia is considered to be close ally of the U.S.? In a race to the bottom of human behavior, one plausible reason is the necessity of selling military hardware in exchange for their cheap oil. But that does not hold muster given U.S. independence of imported oil. If the US military supply chain is interrupted there is little doubt the French and Brits swill only be too happy to fill the vacuum to allow the Saudis to continue slaughtering more Yeminis. Jesus, Allah-God must be watching in horror. I urge readers to phone the White House, tweet (POTUS), and demand President Biden adheres to his 2019 pledge. Furthermore, please demand the U.S. and NATO impose a tight arms embargo on Saudi Arabia to prevent further loss of life.

Modi’s Government targets climate activist 3-6-2021

 

6, March 2021                   Modi’s Government targets climate activist

Amidst the raging COVID pandemic threatening the lives of millions of Indians, the Modi government is squandering precious resources to silence  climate activists like Dishi Ravi. Ravi has been charged with sedition, incitement and involvement in an international conspiracy including but not limited to: protests by Indian farmers, the global pop star Rihanna,  threats against yoga and chai, Sikh separatism and Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg. Heaven forbid! Is Dishi threatening to ban my morning cup of delicious chai? Really? Perhaps, Modi harks back to the good old days when he was a happy chaiwalla!

By using the shotgun  approach, hoping one the lubricous charges would stick, the BJP government has exposed itself to world-wide ridicule and condemnation. Cartoonists and editorial writers must be having a field day with the Dishi-Modi saga unless they are too terrified of Modi’s secret police. What happened to the India that boasted to be the world’s largest democracy?

Following nine days of intense interrogation (perhaps a new form of police filibustering?) the presiding judge released her issuing a scathing criticism of gross police misconduct stating the report was , “scanty and sketchy”, and there is not “even an iota” of proof to support the charges. Well said sir!

Much like the US, absurd anti-democratic loony conspiracy theories gain speedy traction on American social media platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter, closely knitted WhatsApp’s groups, and private Zoom sessions. The Indian government has also used these media tools to turn the public against popular movements like the farmers protests and climate activists. In practical terms these activists are voicing concern for the poor and survival of the planet emulating the spiritual messages in our sacred scriptures.  After all wasn’t Jesus an ultra-leftie? Didn’t Guru Nanak target the insidious caste system denouncing the high-low construct of modern day Hinduism?

Indian liticians should applaud these brave activists, embrace democracy and abandon their satanic schemes.

With all the tools of tyranny at its disposal, India is on the knife edge of descending into a nation of gross intolerance and mayhem. The Delhi riots targeting the Muslim minority in 2019 is just a small example of what might follow. Not a single indictment has occurred even though the guilty, including the Delhi police, are well known. Fear and intimidation continue to haunt the Muslim victims and the community at large.

At the same time, these social  tools have been used in a coordinated pro-government messaging campaign to urn public sentiment against young activists and farmers protests , often in clear violation of the guardrails social media companies falsely  claim to have erected to prevent violent incitement on their platforms.

India should follow Europe’s role in demanding these American companies exercise more stringent oversight or face heavy financial penalties.

In a country where online hatred has occurred with chilling frequency and ferocity, human-rights activists are warning that India could easily descend into an intolerant autocracy aided and abetted by social media platforms much like the pogroms against Rohingya in Myanmar.

Biden & MBS 3-4-2021

 

4, March 2021                               Biden & MBS

 

President Biden’s response to MBS’s role in the brutal torture and murder of Saudi dissident Khashoggi was extremely disappointing.

 

Desperate to deflect blame, MBS threw former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency “under the bus” and said he was the ring leader responsible for the killing and named several other Saudi officials.

 

Biden said it was up Saudi Arabia to determine the path forward on their future leadership. Do US officials plan to host and shake hands with one the world’s worst assassins? What happened to the much touted American values?

 

While the U.S. continues to pummel Iran with unjust crippling economic sanctions for a 2015 nuclear treaty that America failed to uphold, the Biden administration is giving MBS a free pass. Swift action is paramount given King Salman age and poor health

Failure to punish MBS puts Saudi exiles in grave danger and gives carte blanch impunity to the crown prince who would likely go after dissidents with renewed vigor. One such dissident who chose to go public is halid Aljabri, the son of a former senior Saudi official who is living in exile in Canada and whose siblings, Omar and Sarah, are being held hostage in the kingdom.

Joe Biden speaking in November 2019 during a presidential debate promised emphatically” to punish the senior Saudi responsible for Khashoggi murder.”

Tough words! So Joe, to what happened to your 2019 pledge? You promised a “recalibration of U.S. relationship with the Saudis. No Joe,  what is needed is a recalibration of your moral compass?

It is puzzling to understand why Saudi Arabia is considered to be close ally of the U.S.? In a race to the bottom of human behavior, one plausible reason  is the necessity of selling military hardware in exchange for their cheap oil. But that does not hold muster given U.S. independence of imported oil. If the US military supply chain is interrupted there is little doubt the French and Brits swill only be too happy to fill the vacuum to allow the Saudis to continue slaughtering more Yeminis. Jesus, Allah-God must be watching in horror. I rge readers to phone the White House, tweet (POTUS), and demand President Biden adheres to his 2019 pledge. Furthermore, please demand the U.S. and NATO impose a tight arms embargo on Saudi Arabia to prevent further loss of life.