The Importance of Economics

(This is an essay for Social Science 1 at Bohol Island State University)

Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. It applies this scientific principles on a social context wherein people makes choices on how to exploit resources based on availability and necessity.

The earliest discussion on economics dates back to the ancient Greek society where the first democratic impetus originated. Back then, such discussion was not separate from Philosophy since the dynamics of a slave society places such intellectual discourse only at the academics. It was not until the Industrial Revolution where social realities made it imperative to establish focus on exploitation of resources that it became a discipline on its own.

In the advent of Capitalism, economics became indispensable. Since capitalism nurtures social consumerism, economics graduated from being an academic subject into being an everyday sociopolitical reality.

Household
While ancient feudal societies are governed by the master-servant distribution of wealth system down to a single family, modern household has become an economic front line all by itself. It has become the basic unit of economic activity wherein production and consumption of resources are planned and processed.

Business
The most obvious beneficiary of economics as a discipline is business. From small entrepreneurs to multinational corporations, economics is not only indispensable but is actually the lifeblood of its system.

Nation Building
While politics dominated national policies until recent history, economics is emerging to be the single most important issue any aspiring national politician must knowledgeable about. This is because, with the onset of free enterprise and globalization, the exploitation of resources by nations has become brutally competitive. Such is so that any national policy without sound economic vision is deemed weak or untenable.

Globalization
The international embrace of free trades and the principles of free enterprise has ushered in a new era of globalization. Now we not only talk about economies of individual nation or region or group of nations, the term global economy was born. For nations the economic relationships between nations have become so intertwined that the failings of one will inevitably affect the other. Thus the term global economy, to stress the point that we are one global economy. Thus was the case of the Asian Financial Crisis which started in Thailand, and the recent Global Economic Crisis, which started in the US.

E-conomics
Another interesting modern development is the emergence of virtual economy. This is with the onset of e-commerce... eBay, PayPal, Amazon, Google AdSense, even marketing through Facebook and Twitter... this new dynamics builds a new dimension to the term economy which at times challenges the established principles of modern economics as applied to physical realities.

The importance of economics in all facets of modern human condition cannot be overstated. We live in a world of competition and as such our processes of production and consumption are governed by the dynamics no less extensively studied and examined by the discipline called Economics.

Russia's Power Greed

Russia's Lavrov condemns EU oil sanctions on Syria

extracted from BBC.co.uk

Russia has condemned the EU's move to step up sanctions on Syria by banning imports of its oil, amid ongoing protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the sanctions would "lead to nothing good".

Oil accounts for about 25% of Syria's income and EU member states take about 95% of its oil exports.

At least 14 people were reportedly killed on Friday as protesters again came out in force across the country.

Activists said seven had died in suburbs of the capital Damascus, four in the central city of Homs, and another three in Deir al-Zour in the east.

The United Nations says more than 2,200 people have been killed since pro-democracy demonstrations began in mid-March.

I had my first-hand experience of the depth of soviet-era Russian indoctrination when I had a chance to work with a Kazakh and an Uzbekh at a meat processing plant in South Korea. If we Filipinos are so effectively indoctrinated by the Americans to the point that at some point we almost see them as gods, that is exactly how these former soviets still regard Russia. They see Russia as a moral icon and the west as the evil antagonist.

It is precisely this lingering psyche in the masses of their former dominions that Russia would like to tap as they strive hard to muscle through geopolitics and reposition themselves as the balancing superpower to the US giant. Together with China, apparently it has succeeded in, not exactly balancing, but providing resistance to the western dominance in international politics.

In the advent of the Arab Spring, this resistance was put on a new stage. While the west are eager to cash in on the revolution in the name of freedom and democracy (the usual rhetoric), albeit selfishly careful and selective, Russia and China chose to argue on the side of stability and sovereignty (the usual rhetoric too). While China's position can be interpreted as driven by its sense of integrity and political consistency with domestic policies and national security, Russia's is something else. With a market economy dominated by mafia magnates and a party system swarmed with oligarchs, the spirit of its politics is more of a predator. In that sense, its motivation is almost just identical with that of the west: the acquisition of as much of the the world's resources as it can, not only for domestic consumption but for economic opportunities.

The Arab Spring is ripe with such opportunities. The west saw that, albeit nervously, and Russia saw that too. So we have two opposing positions with almost exactly the same motivation. The difference is the west's policies is subject to the scrutiny of an open society while Russia only answers to its ruling party. Thus it was only natural for the west to take the position they took simply because it is where the moral sympathies of their constituent lies. Can we say the same of Russia?

Would we venture to say that Russians does not feel for the hundreds of Syrians braving the self-imposed frontlines of the Assad's army, all in the name of freedom and democratic change? Scores die each day Russia flaunts its security council veto power just so, as they say, Assad be given more time to reform. Are we to believe ordinary Russians are as impervious to arbitrary murder and blatant disregard of human dignity as its government? I seriously doubt it.

As the Arab Spring rages, this Russia will be gradually unmasked. If Libya is any lesson, the tide cannot be against the people's real and pure hunger for empowerment and liberation. What Russia's resistance only provides is the more likelihood of more and greater violence within Syria, which may translate to more innocent lives wasted and families shattered as a full blown and potentially protracted armed insurrection becomes increasingly imminent.

Persia, Up Close and Comical

Washington diary: Inside Iran

By Matt Frei
BBC News, Washington

Almost exactly five years ago I was lucky enough to be granted a journalist visa to Iran.

I am not being facetious.

Journalist visas are like gold dust and Iran is a memorable country to visit.

There's the majesty of Isfahan with its blue mosques, giant squares and scented bazaars; the ancient courtyard mansions of Kashan; the sophistication of Tehran, where beautiful women are forced to wear headscarves and anoraks in public and look like supermodels masquerading as spies.

Like all other journalists I made my weekly pilgrimage to the Friday prayer meeting at Tehran University.

Tens of thousands of students and other devotees converged in what could best be described as a giant car-park covered with the kind of roof you expect to find in an aircraft hangar.

We were allowed onto a viewing gallery.

Below us, the veterans of the Islamic revolution, the heavies from the Revolutionary Guard and thousands of students wearing the white clothes of would-be martyrs listened to Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei berate the Great Satan - America - and its understudy the Little Satan - Britain - for their aggression.

'Axis of evil'

Afghanistan had already been invaded. Iraq was next on the list.

Iran had just been named by President Bush as a founding member of the axis of evil.

So, even a cursory glance at the map and American troop movements would have created a lump in the average Iranian throat.

A well-dressed man in his 30s wandered up to me. He looked angry. "How dare you call as an axis of evil?" he said in Farsi and waited for our translator to deliver every word of his diatribe.

"What about your President Bush?" he soldiered on. "He's a top-class aggressor!"

Then he looked around and motioned me to come and stand behind a pillar.

He leant so close to me I could smell the tobacco and garlic on his breath. My personal space was definitely being invaded and I was pondering options.

"There is a joke doing the rounds," he suddenly said in a whisper and in perfect English. "If only the B-52s [bombers] could stop off in Tehran before going on to Kabul.

"After all, it is on the way!" He motioned to the ayatollahs on the podium next to us. "We can't get rid of them without your help!"

Chewing the fat

Later in the day I came across a similar if less brazen view.

The editor of a 'liberal' newspaper which had been shut down no fewer than seven times and reopened under a different name told me he approved of sanctions because they would put pressure on the regime.

Military action, he said, would be counter-productive.

We were invited to attend an editorial board meeting.

The discussion ranged from domestic issues, like the latest arrests of human rights activists, to the turmoil on Tehran's nascent stock market and the war in Afghanistan and how the regime was not sure whether to thank the US for getting rid of its old enemy the Taleban or be afraid of Uncle Sam's designs on the region.

As far as I could tell through the translation, the conversation was sophisticated, funny and relaxed - scribblers chewing the fat. It could have been London or Washington.

Pelted with eggs

Here's the point: Iran is complicated, mercurial and rife with internal divisions.

President Ahmadinejad is no Saddam Hussein, even if he has hosted a "Holocaust Denial" conference, and does want to develop a nuclear capability.

Saddam Hussein personally shot people he didn't like.

The president of Iran has been pelted by unruly students with eggs and insults and no-one was shot.

I'm not saying he's been grossly misunderstood. I am saying that Iran is far less monolithic than many in Washington like to think. The trick is to sweat out the differences.

Today Iran is more isolated than it has been for a long time. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan are lining up with Israel to work against the thing they fear most - a Persian nuke.

Consider that among the last words uttered by Saddam Hussein, of all people, before the noose tightened around his neck: "Damn the Americans and damn the Persians!"

The Russians are annoyed because the Iranians won't pay their dues on the nuclear reactor at Busher. This is hardly ideological opposition, but it's better than nothing.

The Chinese are voting with the other members of the UN Security Council against Iran even though they can't get enough Iranian light crude.

The pressure may be working but it isn't enough.

Lure with iPods

If I were the US government I would issue Iran with 10,000 student visas and 1,000 technology grants to Silicon Valley.

Iran boasts five million college students with higher degrees, the largest proportion in the Middle East.

Instead of encouraging them to turn into head-bashing extremists I would seduce them into becoming head-banging, iPod-wearing computer geeks.

Unfortunately none of this will ever happen.

Even if the administration thought of it, the Democrats, flexing their muscles on Capitol Hill or positioning themselves to race for the White House, would oppose it.

They were, after all, the ones who kicked up a stink about the Dubai ports deal even though the Gulf States actually quite like America and Dubai is already the biggest US naval base overseas.

But subtlety doesn't play well in election campaigns.

What's more, the rhetoric coming from the US is music to Tehran's ears.

Every time there's a tiff the price of oil inches above $65 a barrel, making the Iranian government a little bit richer still.

So - with US Iran policy struck in a groove, Tehran thriving on adversity, an extra US carrier group in the Gulf, the Revolutionary Guards building IEDs [bombs] for Shia death squads in Iraq and the Israelis feeling distinctly twitchy about the prospect of a nuclear Iran - the stars are dangerously aligned for a show-down, even if the White House and Tehran don't actually want one.

Now imagine "an event", an unforeseen crisis that pushes everyone to the brink - like 15 British sailors being held hostage by the Revolutionary Guard Navy in the Shatt al-Arab waterway.

i like the way the author paints the landscape of the MidEast situation... and i like the way he concluded it. comic but pointed.

Uncle Sam The Bully

US cancels Philippine exercises

The US has cancelled an annual joint military exercise with the Philippines over the detention of a US marine convicted of rape, officials say.

A Philippine court has refused to return Lance Corporal Daniel Smith to US custody while he appeals - defying an agreement between the two countries.

L/Cpl Smith was sentenced by a Manila court to 40 years in prison earlier this month over the rape of a woman.

The case has sparked strong protests from women's and left-wing groups.

The annual Balikatan exercise was due to take place in February, and would have involved about 5,000 US soldiers and 3,000 Filipino troops.

A US embassy spokesman confirmed its cancellation was as a result of the "current custody issue that's still working its way through the Philippine judicial system."

"Until the government and the courts ensure the Philippines is in full compliance with the VFA (visiting forces agreement), it would not be prudent to bring additional US troops to the Philippines at this time," Matt Lussenhop added.

Under the VFA agreement, US troops accused of crimes should remain at the US embassy until all "legal processes" are completed.

Protests

Earlier this week, a court rejected a petition that L/Cpl Smith be transferred from his Manila jail to the US embassy to wait out his appeal.

Smith had been taking part in joint military exercises in November last year when he was arrested and charged along with three others.

The 21-year-old from St Louis, Missouri, was found guilty of raping a woman in a van at the former US base of Subic Bay, west of Manila. He insisted the sex was consensual.

The three other defendants were cleared.

The case created strong emotions in the Philippines, with protesters often appearing at the courtroom during the trial.

Until when shall our country be laid subordinate to the whims of US self-serving interest?! Until when shall we be pawns to Uncle Sam's neo-colonial maneuvers?... Until when shall we be intimidated by US bullying and economic blackmails?!

Psyche of Desperation

One-third support 'some torture'

Nearly a third of people worldwide back the use of torture in prisons in some circumstances, a BBC survey suggests.

Although 59% were opposed to torture, 29% thought it acceptable to use some degree of torture to combat terrorism.

While most polled in the US are against torture, opposition there is less robust than in Europe and elsewhere.

More than 27,000 people in 25 countries were asked if torture was acceptable if it could provide information to save innocent lives.

Some 36% of those questioned in the US agreed that this use of torture was acceptable, while 58% were unwilling to compromise on human rights.

"The dominant view around the world is that terrorism does not warrant bending the rules against torture," said Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), whose organisation helped conduct the survey.

...

Other countries that polled higher levels of acceptance of the use of torture include Iraq (42%), the Philippines (40%), Indonesia (40%), Russia (37%) and China (37%).

...

Source: BBC/Globescan/PIPA

i am both surprised and appalled by the mention of Philippines in this article. god! we almost equalled Iraq. while the saner majority of our people still has descent respect for life, it is very disturbing that for a country that has witnessed and subjected to such violent method many times in its history, almost a half of its population favor its use. torture is a shortcut to justice my doing the unjust. it proposes to save lives by degrading it. this psyche is a clear indication of our hopelessness as a nation. we crave for a just society but we haven't been getting it through our civilized front. we've become desperate.

god help us...

A Sweet Story of Terror

Radicalising Europe's young Muslims
By Peter Taylor
Reporter, BBC series Al Qaeda: Time To Talk?

Europe has become a hunting ground for al-Qaeda recruits. Largely disillusioned with US foreign policy, several young Muslims are making the journey east, some to become suicide bombers.

In his new television series, Peter Taylor talks to a woman in Paris whose life was turned upside-down when her boyfriend went to fight in Iraq.

Barbara had known Peter since their schooldays.

"He was the clown in the classroom, always making everyone laugh," she told me.

"He was very gentle and always had time for everybody. He was like a big brother and protected me at that time."

Peter was like any other French teenager.

He enjoyed sport, hanging out with his friends and listening to French and American rap music.

The fact that Peter was a North African Muslim and Barbara was a white French teenager, half Christian and half Jewish, was not an issue for either of them.

Buttes Chaumont, the area where both lived in Paris, was reasonably well integrated and not the powder keg that the notorious banlieues of Paris were later to become.

Pulling away

In time, Barbara and Peter started going out together.

Barbara always respected Peter's religion and it never got in the way of their relationship.

He used to pray at home, fasted at Ramadan, and behaved just like other Muslims.

Then gradually things began to change.

One day he told her he was going to catch up with his prayers at the mosque since he could not do them all while he was working.

The mosque in question was a makeshift adjunct to a hostel for North Africans in Buttes Chaumont.

The self-proclaimed imam there was a charismatic 22-year-old French Algerian called Farid Benyettou who, despite being barely out of his teens, exercised a powerful influence over many of the local young Muslims.

Three of his acolytes went to Iraq and died while carrying out suicide missions.

Changed personality

Barbara knew little about Benyettou except he was gradually taking Peter away from her.

Soon Peter swapped his cool street gear for Islamic dress.

Going to the cinema and restaurants, which they had always enjoyed doing, was out.

So was sex.

"What bothered him was that we had an intimate relationship out of wedlock," she said. "So I said if that's the only thing that's bothering you, we could stop."

But for Peter that was not enough.

Soon, touching each other, kissing and holding hands was ruled out.

Again, Barbara did not fight it as she loved him.

They spent hours talking on the phone until Peter told her that his "professor" had told him it was forbidden if Peter was alone.

They then carried on their relationship over the internet, until that too was vetoed.

Peter was told he could never be alone with Barbara.

"First we sat at the table next to each other, then he moved to the sofa, then a bit further away. He moved away from me progressively."

Barbara even offered to convert to Islam but Peter rejected the offer.

Abu Ghraib

In May 2004, Peter said he was going to Syria for a few months to have a holiday, learn Arabic and study Islam in greater depth.

His mother, to whom he was close, gave the trip her blessing on condition he kept in regular touch.

At first he was true to his word via an internet cafe in Damascus, until he said he was going to a village with no internet access.

There was silence for several months.

One day in November, the phone rang.

It was Peter, although he never said where he was calling from.

When he hung up, Barbara checked the country code on the internet and discovered he was in Iraq.

That was the last Barbara heard until the Ministry of Foreign Affairs telephoned and said they had been informed by the US authorities that Peter had been arrested on 2 December, 2004, in Falluja - around the time of the American onslaught.

The caller told Barbara that Peter had no ID. At first he had been held in a local detention camp and then transferred to Abu Ghraib prison in August 2005.

Last July, she learned that Peter had been sentenced by an Iraqi court to 15 years in gaol.

I asked how she felt about those who had led Peter down the road to Jihad.

"I'm furious. They took advantage of him. His youth was wasted, his life was wasted and my life and his mum's life were wasted.

"When he comes back, I don't know if I'll hug him or hit him." Barbara will have a long wait.

to somebody raised in christian and western orientation and moral system, islamism and particularly the jihadist's logic is utterly appalling if not incomprehensible. this story is only a tiny glimpse of the horror we face today in consequence to the rift between two cultures and their continued and progressing inability to reconcile each other.

between western state-entities and islamist state-networks, where do we ordinary citizens of the world stand? are we just going to sit down and watch the world get polarized into either camps and wait until the so-called 'war of cilivizations' explodes right before our doorsteps?... or is there really anything we can do at all?!

Unmasking An Icon

Che Guevara should be scorned — not worn
By Ryan Clancy

Che Guevara is everywhere these days. Not literally. He is, after all, dead. But 38 years after meeting his demise in the Bolivian jungle, the communist revolutionary has re-emerged as a pop culture icon. In dorm rooms, on the runways of Paris and on merchandising kitsch, the legendary Alberto Korda image of a beret-clad Guevara is the epitome of cool. Don't be surprised if during tonight's trick-or-treating, Che shows up among the goblins. He's that ubiquitous. Hollywood has taken notice, too. Last year's indie hit The Motorcycle Diaries, which traced Che's youthful wanderlust trip across South America, is soon to be followed by a major studio production featuring Benicio Del Toro.

Che's rock star status will probably be fleeting. Just ask Motley Crüe. But long after Jay-Z stops rapping, "I'm like Che Guevara with bling on," Che will retain the exalted position he has held since the Vietnam War as a symbol of peace and justice. And that is a problem. Che demanded worldwide revolution, even if it meant a stream of death and misery. He said the utopia that could be built on the ashes of the old world would make the suffering worthwhile. That's why he advocated a nuclear exchange during the Cuban missile crisis.

In fact, if you read through Che's speeches, with his constant refrain of glorious martyrdom, they're remarkably similar to another well-known "revolutionary" — the tall, bearded one holed up somewhere on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Che hated the United States and the global free market system that sustained it. Just ask him. "Let us sum up our hopes for victory: total destruction of imperialism by eliminating its firmest bulwark, the oppression exercised by the United States of America."

If Che's world vision had prevailed, it's safe to say that Apple founder Steve Jobs would have never brought us the iPod. After all, it's tough to innovate when you're stuck behind a donkey farming turnips for the proletariat.

For those who sell Che merchandise, this history is beside the point. Yakov Grinberg, a 20-year-old clerk at Freaks, a shop in Manhattan's trendy East Village, freely concedes: "Most of these people obviously have no idea what they're wearing."

Che isn't the only erstwhile commie scoring cool points either. Chairman Mao and the Soviet hammer-and-sickle are showing up on hipster gear as well. Who knew that bread lines were the new black?

Against this backdrop of ignorance, it's not surprising that Che, as a populist symbol of uncompromising defiance who stood up for the poor and oppressed, transcends the real Che — the one who said judicial review for executions was an "archaic bourgeoisie detail."

What then are we to make of Che Guevara? Che apologists insist he fought "for the
people." But when it came to the basics of helping "the people," such as not killing them, he was less than stellar.

Most historians agree upon one fact, however, that can shape our understanding of Che. He was a loser. Big time. I'm talking McGovern in '72, Saddam in '91 and the Chicago Cubs every year since '08.

Che fomented unrest in Argentina, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Haiti, Panama and the African Congo, and every expedition was an abject failure. His single enduring political achievement, Cuba, is not even threatening enough to make the Axis of Evil.

So, instead of Che being held up as a beacon of peace and justice, let us hereafter revel in his futility. He'll be an exemplar of the idea that hard work does not always pay off. In fact, I already have a new shirt in mind. Take the same iconic picture of Che and just add the heading, "I tried to conquer the evil Yankee imperialists and
all I got was this stupid T-shirt."

Ryan Clancy is a freelance writer living in New York City. This article is extracted from USAToday.com.

i too am a personal admirer of Che, not because I fully know or appreciate his legacy, but because his person manages to embody one of the greatest struggle of modern society. the aspirations and frustrations of the struggle against the structures of capitalism and its consequences to modern man and living.

communism, yes, as it turned out, is a failed project. especially to the marxist purists. that is saying in witness to the apparent fall of deficient commie states and the consequent rise of free market enterprise into the so-called free trade blahblah con globalization. but is 'communism' the only answer to capitalism? while Che was an ardent communist, perhaps brutally if you say so, but he is also a passionate humanist. he doesn't only espose nuclear gift exchange, but he gives his sweat and blood to the people whose suffering crashes before him in his days as a rural medical practitioner.

while Che's communism makes him a 'big time' loser, i think it was his humanism that makes his symbol survives and miraculously wields so much power nowadays. humanism, i should say then, should be the counterbalance to the destructive propensities of the capitalist system and not any utopian political ideology (nor the emerging rightist theocratic ideology of both Bush and Bin Ladden).

by the way, the absence of iPod in our lives sounds scary don't you think...

Apocalyptic Blogging

Analysis of the Latest Global Happenings
Robin MacArthur, New Jersey.

Friday, August 18, 2006 2:35:09 AM

How DEMOcracy in Iraq will DEMOlish the Middle East

• Elections are held in Iraq in December 2005
• Violence continues after election day in Terror attacks aimed at Shiites
• Wrangling of the Shiites with Sunnis and Kurds for the formation of an United Iraqi administration
• Terrorists blow off Shiites Mosques, explode car bombs in Shiite localities.
• Shiite-Sunni Civil War gradually begins in Iraq but is restrained by Shiite clerics.
• Shiite clerics want to rule the whole of Iraq and not the Southern Shiite rump and call for calm to keep Iraq united under their rule (we have reached this stage today)
• New Shiite dominated administration is formed and calls for phased pullout of US forces
• US forces begin a phased pullout
• They re-locate outside the cities in isolated fortified camps
• Sunni Terrorists blow off Iraqi parliament, Presidential palace, Prime Minister’s residence
• Terrorists assassinate Ministers, Parliamentarians
• Sunni Terrorists blow off Shiites Mosques at Najaf and Karbala, assassinate Al Hakim, and Moqtada Al Sadr who are important Shiites leaders and clerics.
• A full scale civil war starts between the Sunni dominated insurgents and the new Shiite led Iraqi military dominated by the late Al Hakim’s Badr Brigades and aided by the late Al Sadr’s Mahdi Militia
• Iran sends in insurgents to back Shiites
• Saudis, Syrians, Egyptians, Kuwaitis, Palestinians send in insurgents to back Sunnis
• Saudis and Kuwaitis call for US action to stop Iran from intensifying the Iraqi civil war
• Israel bombs Iranian nuke facilities to neutralize Iran.
• Iran tries to crash missiles into Israel and Europe
• Internal rebellion breaks out in Iran
• US special forces start operating inside Iran to topple Mullah regime
• Iranian/Hezbollah forces stage terrorist attacks in Israel and in the West
• US launches an air blitz of Iran followed by a land invasion and sets up a new regime
• The son of the late Shah of Iran returns to Iran as a private citizen
• Shiite -Hezbollah led terror attacks across the West and Israel intensify
• Israel invades Lebanon to wipe out the Hezbollah threat
• Egypt/Syria threaten Israel with serious consequences.
• Terrorist attacks originating from Gaza intensify in Israel
• Israel warns Syria with military action
• Mega terror attack inside Israel
• Israel declares Syria to be culpable and launches a swift land and air assault on Syria
• Syria appeals for Arab military action to save itself
• Egypt faces a civil war with sections of the Egyptian Military under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood launch a insurrection against the Mubarak administration.
• Pressurized by Syria and Egypt, Saudi Arabia starts feeble military action against Israel
• Israel overruns Northern Saudi Arabia and Syria in a pincer movement to join up with US forces stationed in Iraq and occupies Damascus.
• US forces enter Syria from Syrian-Iraqi border in the North, join up with Israeli military
• After the conquest of Syria, Israel turns on Egypt to help the pro Mubarak forces and annexes Sinai, crosses Suez Canal and threatens Cairo that is now in the hands of the Muslim brotherhood led Military junta.
• Another spectacular terror attack inside Israel with Dirty Bombs. Suspects traced to Saudi backed insurgents.
• Sustained IAF (Israel Air Force) nuke strike on Saudi cities, Mecca, Medina, Mena, Jiddah Riyadh, taken off the map.
• Upheaval in the entire Arab world
• Western diplomats and businessmen attacked, kidnapped, beheaded
• Anti-American riots in Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia.
• Musharraf and Yudhyono regimes under tremendous pressure to give up pro-US stance
• Musharraf assassinated by pro-Jihadi elements in Army due to his association with the US. The Jihadis last straw being his helping the Americans in finding Iran's nuke sites as a trade off for letting AQ Khan off the hook. But Mushy's gamble does not pay off, as he loses his job and life.
• Jihadi regime in Pakistan ups hostility with India
• Jihadis succeed in smuggling nuclear devices in the US and exploding them simultaneously
• US army takes over US administration, suspends constitution
• US military regime blockades the UN and declares it persona non-grata
• US enters into emergency war council with Russia and Britain
• The triple alliance starts nuclear bombing military targets across the Islamic world
• Pakistani nukes taken out in first strike
• Pakistan explodes some nuke devices on India
• Indian retaliation wipes off Pakistan off the map - death toll in South Asia is over half a billion
• Widespread Hindu-Muslim riots in India on the lines of the Gujarat riots of 2002. Muslim population decimated, Hindus and Christians also suffer heavy death toll.
• Nuclear campaign launched by the triple alliance intensifies as many cities in the Islamic world are taken off the map to wipe off the air forces.
• Seaports in the Islamic world crippled to decapitate the navies
• Radiation causes second wave of deaths. The toll in secondary deaths more than three billion
• More than half of the fatalities are Muslims.
• Almost the entire population in the Muslim world is decimated.
• China joins war against Islam, wipes off Muslim (Ughir) population in Eastern Turkestan
• Muslims in Europe launch a wave of terror attacks in European capitals
• Conditions in Europe very disturbed in a civil war like situation
• Right wing coups in France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark. The new regimes join the triple alliance
• Widespread anti-Muslim riots in Europe aided by the militaries of those countries and NATO forces
• Domestic military action against Muslims in Europe intensifies as European militaries do combing operations to flush out Muslims
• The post-war Muslim population worldwide now accounts for only one percent of the global population concentrated mostly in Europe
• Military action ends, US, Britain and Russia announce reconstruction plan for the world
• Islam outlawed across the globe
• Residual Muslims worldwide embrace Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism. Judaism
• Humanity enters post-Islamic phase.

This write-up has been compiled based on analysis by Seymour Hersh and information at the following sites; Stratfor.org, Rand.org, Military.com

extracted from http://hindutva.org/

funny and funny and funny... i'm laughing because if doomsday visions are real, or at least even in part turned out to be tenable, there'd be nothing to laugh about it afterwards.

Christian Nationalism

"Among liberals, there is always talk about fascism and there's a kind of agreement that you can't talk about it more publicly without sounding like a lunatic. You don't want to sound like you're comparing Bush to Hitler. We have no language to talk about the intermediate stages of this kind of thing. But there are these really unmistakable parallels to fascism, not as a government system, but to fascism in its early stages. Before fascism is a government, it's a movement. It's not born in power, it comes to power. I think it's time to talk about fascism or another word for it. Christian Nationalism is one way to talk about it. But there are things that are going on that are not normal, they're not politics usual."

Michelle Goldberg
Auuthor, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism

The Growing Threat of Right-Wing Christians
by Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet. Posted July 19, 2006.

Reactive articles regarding the Israeli maneuver in Gaza and Lebanon swarms the web nowadays. I was actually doing away from them when I was surfing a counterculture site when this came accross my eyes. I didn't take the article seriously at first until little by little i saw the point of the interviewee surfacing at each answer. The particular answer i quoted above highlights the alarm this article has brought to me. I believe this truly needs a serious examination not only by the citizens of the most powerful country in the world but also to the people influenced and affected by its policies.

Could there be any parallel to this 'Christian Nationalism' in the only Christian nation in Asia?