China’s Xinjiang: ‘Ethnic tensions and economic disparity’…

XINJIANG REGION

From the desk of MD

THE Xinjiang Uighur Region (XUAR), a vast land mass and territory in western China, accounts for one-sixth of China’s land and is home to around 20-million people from thirteen major ethnic groups. The largest of these groups is the Uighurs, a predominately Muslim community with close ties to central Asia. Some Uighurs (pronounced: WEE-gurs) call China’s presence in Xinjiang a form of imperialism, and they steeped up calls in the 1990s, sometimes violently, for independence, through separatist groups like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. The Chinese government reacted, spontaneously, by promoting the migration of China’s ethnic majority, the Han, to Xinjiang. Beijing has also strengthened economic ties with the area and has tried on numerous occasions to cut-off potential sources of separatist support from neighbouring states that are linguistically and ethically linked with the Uighurs.

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Since the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, Xinjiang has experienced varying degrees of autonomy. Turkic rebels in Xinjiang, for instance, declared independence in October 1933 and created the Islamic Republic of East Turkestan. The following year, though, the Republic of China reabsorbed the region. In 1944, factions within Xinjiang again declared independence, this time under the auspices of the Soviet Union, and created what became known as the Second East Turkistan Republic. But in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party took over the territory and declared it a Chinese province. In October 1955, Xinjiang became classified as an “autonomous region” of the People’s Republic of China.

Some Uighurs, particularly those that reflect over Xinjiang’s intermittent periods of independence, call for the creation of a Uighur state. The Central Asian Uighurs know a great deal about the two East Turkestan periods of sovereign rule, and they are known to reflect on that quite frequently. Many of these Uighurs say China colonised the area in 1949. But in its first white paper on Xinjiang, the Chinese government said Xinjiang had been an “inseparable part” of the unitary multi-ethnic Chinese nation since the Western Han Dynasty, which ruled from 206 BC to 24 AD.

Xinjiang’s wealth undoubtedly hinges on its vast mineral and oil deposits. In the early 1990s, Beijing decided to spur Xinjiang’s growth by granting it special economic zones, heavily subsidised local cotton farmers, and overhauled its tax system. In August 1991, the Xinjiang government launched the Tarim Basin Project to stimulate agricultural output. During this period, Beijing invested in the region’s infrastructure, built massive projects like the Tarim Desert Highway and a rail link to western Xinjiang. A strongly held belief is that these projects were designed to bind Xinjiang more closely to the PRC (Republic of China).

Since 1954, China has also used the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) to build agricultural settlements in China’s western periphery. Known locally as the Bingtuan, the XPCC is charged with cultivating and guarding the Chinese frontier. In an attempt to fulfil this mission, the corps has its own security organs, including an armed police force and government militia. Over the past half-century, the XPCC has attracted a steady stream of migrant workers to Xinjiang.

Map of China indicating the geo location of Xinjiang, the western region of China, where ethnic tensions are running high. (Map/Image Credit: Economist)

Beijing has continued to develop Xinjiang. Programs such as “Open up the West” and “Go West” have made the region relatively prosperous. The general per capita income of Xinjiang as a region, for instance, is higher than all of China’s except for the southeast coast. Others note, though, that Xinjiang’s wealth is concentrated in its oil-rich centres, and within international development bodies like the Asian Development Bank. Analysts often point to high levels of inequality in the area; such citations are applicable – the Chinese government having launched a series of programs to alleviate poverty in Xinjiang, and in March 2008, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao emphasised “harmonious development” of the region in a government report.

To understand why China’s Xinjiang has spiralled out of control, a number of factors require to be considered:

 

HAN MIGRATION

A growing job market in Xinjiang has lured a steady stream of migrant workers to the region in pursuit of employment and opportunity, many of whom are ethnically Han. The Chinese government does not count the number of workers that travel to Xinjiang, but analysts say the local Han population has risen from around 5% in the 1940s to approximately 40% today. These migrants work in various industries, both low and high tech, and have certainly helped to transform Xinjiang’s landscape. In June 2008, the BBC produced a report called “Life in Urmqi” which said that Xinjiang’s capital had recently witnessed:

… The arrival of shopping centres, tower blocks, department stores and highways.

Many of these Uighurs say China colonised the area in 1949. But, in its first white paper on Xinjiang, the Chinese government said Xinjiang had been an “inseparable part of the unitary multi-ethnic Chinese nation” since the Western Han Dynasty.

In its 2007 annual report to the U.S. Congress, the Congressional Executive Commission on China said the Chinese government “provides incentives for migration to the region from elsewhere in China, in the name of recruiting talent and promoting stability.” Since imperial times, the Chinese government has tried to settle Han on the outskirts of China to integrate the Chinese periphery. The Communist Party, however, says its policies in Xinjiang are primarily designed to promote economic development, not demographic change. The influx of migrants into Xinjiang has fuelled Uighur discontent as Han and Uighurs compete over jobs and natural resources.

 

ETHNIC TENSION

The Government of China says that Xinjiang is home to thirteen major ethnic groups. The largest, the Uighurs, comprise 45% of Xinjiang’s population, according to the census of 2003. Like many of these groups, the Uighurs are predominately Muslim and have cultural ties to Central Asia.

As ethnic Hans flood into Xinjiang, many Uighurs resent the strain they place on scarce and limited resources like land and water. In 2006, Human Rights in China said population growth in Xinjiang had transformed the local environment, leading to a reduced human access to clean water and fertile soil for drinking, irrigation and agriculture.

Ethnic tension is fanned by economic disparity: the Han tend to be wealthier and more affluent than the Uighurs in Xinjiang. Some evidence suggests that the wage-gap is the result of discriminatory hiring practices. Han applications tend to have better professional networks and contacts: they are generally more influential, children of elite Party members and government leaders. The cultural level and educational standards of the Uighurs in Xinjiang is deemed quite low.

More broadly, Uighers are frequently being frustrated by what they consider to be Chinese attempts to refashion their cultural and religious identity. Often, Uighur’s (living) in exile are known to condemn China for its fierce repression of religious expression and its intolerance for any expression of discontent. Beijing responds to these accusations by saying they respect China’s ethnic minorities, and point to how the Government of China have improved the quality of life for Uighurs by raising economic, public health, and educational levels in Xinjiang.

This month, ethnic tensions between the Han and Uighur communities in Xinjiang was brought into the international limelight after severe riots between the two groups and police forces erupted in the province’s capital city of Urumqi. According to Chinese state media, at least 150 people were killed, and more than 800 were injured. The riots were reportedly sparked by a Uighur protest over the ethnically motivated killing of two Uighur workers in the southern province of Guangdong. Accounts of how the protest turned violent differ.

 

TERRORISM & COUNTERINSURGENCY

During the 1990s, separatist movements in Xinjiang began frequent attacks against the Chinese government. The most prominent of these was the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). China, the United States, and the United Nations Security Council have all deemed ETIM a terrorist organisation, and China has said that the group has ties to al-Qaeda.

 

CONCERN about Uighur terrorism flared in August 2008, just prior to the Beijing Olympics, when two men attacked a military police unit in Xinjiang, killing sixteen. Later, according to the New York Times – who had compiled a dossier based on eyewitness accounts – the attackers were ostensibly in paramilitary uniform, casting doubt on the official Chinese version of the incident, which had labelled it a “terrorist incident”.

The attack had come a week after a group calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party took credit for a number of several sporadic terrorist attacks, including two bus explosions in Yunnan province.

The Han population there has risen from a mere 5% in the 1940s to 40%, today. The Chinese government anxious to combat both separatists and terrorists in its western province is known to have raided an alleged ETIM training camp in January 2007, killing eighteen and arresting up to twenty. China continues to monitor religious activity in the region in an attempt to curb, if not curtail, religious leaders from spreading separatist views. Since 9/11, China has continued to raise international awareness of Uighur-related terrorism and linked its actions to the Bush administration’s so-called “war on terror”.

Many experts, though, say China is exaggerating the danger posed by Uighur terrorists. They point to the fact that ETIM attacks are rather spontaneous and disorganised, resembling forms of civil unrest; they say, too, that ETIM has no effective ties to al-Qaeda and even have gone as far as concluding that the organisation may even be defunct. In a 2008 report, Amnesty International accused China of using the war on terror to justify “harsh repression” of ethnic Uighurs. However, in Xinhua (a state-run newspaper), many Chinese rights organisations refuted the Amnesty report, saying it was designed to “slander China under the pretence of human rights”.

Experts also disagree on the effectiveness and worth of China’s counterterrorism measures. Some have cited China’s anti-separatist campaign provoking more resentment, and hence more terrorism. But, in countering that view, a review of U.S. State Department documents actually shows a decrease in Uighur-related terrorism since the end of the 1990s.

 

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Xinjiang shares its border with Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and the “Tibet Autonomous Region”. Uighurs’ cultural links with many of its neighbours are well established raising suspicions in China that Central Asian states might back a separatist movement in Xinjiang. These fears are fuelled by the fact that the Soviet Union successfully backed a Uighur separatist movement in the 1940s. In preventing trouble fomenting within Xinjiang, China has worked hard in cultivating close diplomatic ties with its neighbours, most notably its efforts through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Essentially, this organisation was created in support of Central Asian states. It also exists to prevent any emergence of linkages between Uighur communities in these countries and Xinjiang.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that China’s diplomatic efforts have been successful. Many of China’s neighbours are now known to fight their own Muslim fundamentalist groups, making them more sympathetic to China’s plight. According to the U.S. State Department, Uzbekistan extradited a Canadian citizen of Uighur ethnicity to China in August 2006, where he was convicted for alleged involvement in ETIM activities. A Case such as this is clear evidence that China’s neighbours are co-operating with China’s anti-secessionist policies.

None of China’s neighbours, however, have expressed official support for the Uighurs; the region’s open and porous borders still worry Chinese officials. In the 1980s and 1990s, many ethnic Uighurs travelled into Pakistan and Afghanistan where they were exposed and indoctrinated to Islamic extremism. Some for example enrolled in madrassas (Islamic religious schools and training camps), some enrolled directly with the Taliban, whilst others enrolled with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. China worries that militants who slip in and out of Xinjiang can promote anti-state activity.

 

INTERNATIONAL APATHY

In the run up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, protests in Tibet reaped international attention. Protests in Xinjiang, at the same time, went relatively unnoticed, despite it often being referred as “China’s other Tibet.”

International interest in Xinjiang is muted for a variety of reasons. For a start, the Uighur community lacks an effective leader of the stature that is held by the Dalai Lama. With the Chinese government effectively branding Uighur separatists as terrorists, this has largely reduced international sympathy for their mission. Amidst international apathy, many commentators say the human rights situation in Xinjiang is likely to get much worse before it gets better. With there being no international pressure to change policy in Xinjiang, why would China make any involuntary changes?

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com

G8 Summit 2009

G8 GATHERING

From the desk of MD

THERE seems something grimly appropriate about this year’s G8 summit being held in L’Aquila, the epicentre of the deadly earthquake felt in April. The eight world leaders gathered for the next three days in the ruined Italian city have an awful lot of rebuilding to do.

High on the summit’s agenda will be a redesign of the rules under which the global economy functions in order to minimise a repeat of last year’s financial meltdown. Russia and China have signalled their intention to push for an agreement on an alternative to the dollar as a global reserve currency, particularly as they fear that their vast accumulations of US assets are at great risk of losing yet more considerable value. China’s attendance at G8 is mutually as an observer, but with events unfolding at home – ethnic tensions in Xinjiang as bad now as they have been for decades – Chinese monitoring of proceedings at G8 may well be short lived.

But, such discussions might well provoke the U.S. to raise, again, its long-standing complaint about China’s policy of manipulating its currency to keep its exports cheap, something which was a significant factor in destabilising the global economy, last autumn. Fiendishly complex and politically sensitive these issues might be, G8 does seem an appropriate place by which such grievances be aired.

32nd G-8 summit to focus on climate change, global economy and world hunger.

Talks on a new global regulatory framework for banks might now be made more fruitful given that most of the governments represented have been badly affected by the implosion of their financial sectors. There is already a general agreement that commercial banks need to be forced to hold more capital in good times to prevent them from needing costly public bailouts when times are bad. A commitment from the G8 participants requiring their domestic banks to do so would send a useful signal to the global financial community that the days of recklessness and mismanagement are coming to an end.

Another huge pressing task at hand is the response to accelerating climate change, particularly as both G7 and the London G20 summits, earlier this year, were consumed largely with the global financial crisis. At the end of the year in Copenhagen, world governments will need to come together in designing a successor to the Kyoto protocol. What better time, then, in putting some of those pieces of that agreement in place. A commitment, for instance, from the world’s largest economies to reduce their global emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 would increase the chances of a much needed breakthrough deal in December. Developing nations will be looking to see that mature economies are fully prepared in taking a lead on this.

G8 also gathers amidst the rubble of their own grandiose aid promises for the developing world. As Action Aid has announced, more than half of the money promised in Japan, last year, has not yet been delivered. The targets set at Gleneagles in 2005, too, look unlikely to be met. Italy, this year’s G8 host, has been particularly flagrant in ignoring its pledges.

Such failures generally exemplify the credibility problem of the G8. Far too often the group’s overly optimistic resolutions and promises of aid have either been forgotten or discarded altogether. A communiqué needs to be delivered that is more than just warm words and good intentions. Real solutions to real problems are needed on a diverse range of topics.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com

US/Russia: ‘Resetting relations’…

US/RUSSIAN TALKS

From the desk of MD

PRESIDENT OBAMA has departed for Moscow for two days of talks with the Kremlin that some commentators argue could be a last chance to put US-Russia relations on a new, dynamic footing. The visit to Russia – the first by Mr. Obama – follows years of escalating tension during the Bush years over, among a plethora of issues that includes the Caucasus, NATO expansion, Kosovo and Iran. Both sides have increasingly resorted to unilateral actions aimed at marking out territory as “no-go” or “out-of-bounds” areas for the other side.

So, Russia’s invasion of Georgia last August, apparently mounted in defence of Georgia’s Ossetian minority has been seen by many as an attempt to humiliate the pro-Western President of Georgia and by scuppering Tbilisi’s ambitions to join NATO.

Yet, the United States continues to ponder and seek possible offers of NATO membership for the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia; talk which, often, infuriates the Kremlin. Also contentious is the stationing of the new missile defence transmitters by the US in the former Warsaw pact countries of Poland and the Czech Republic.

Russia’s anger was also made worse when the US humiliated Serbia, a Russian Balkan ally, by recognising and announcing the independence of breakaway Kosovo. It would seem from the outset, therefore, that President Obama has his work cut out in attempting to regain the goodwill and trust in the Kremlin that he seeks in restoring better and improved relations.

To complicate matters further, Mr. Obama’s official host and interlocutor for the first part of his two day visit is the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, but real power in the Kremlin remains very much in the hands of Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, whom he does not meet until the second day of talks.

President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev speak to reporters at a joint press conference at the Kremlin Palace in Moscow on Monday 6 July, 2009. (Photo Credit: MISHA JAPARIDZE/AP)

The principal item for discussion, though, will be on the issue of nuclear arms control, as well as a transit deal that would allow US weapons to reach Afghanistan across Russian airspace. On this, at least, there does appear to be hope for optimism. Despite Mr. Putin’s bitter and well publicised resentment against American encroachment into Russia’s Caucasus “backyard”, or in how also he interprets Western strategy to exclude Russia from exerting influence in the Balkans by boxing in Serbia, the two powers do share a common interest in containing nuclear arms, preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and by adhering to international treaties in controlling weapons. There appears to be consensus, too, in defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan because of its continued threat to the stability of the world. Russia and its people is just as worried as America about Islamic extremism – possibly even more so, given that it governs a large, sometimes restive, Muslim population in the south of its territory.

 

Michael Phelps: ‘Phelps breaks 100 butterfly world record’…

US swimmer Michael Phelps looks to the stands after setting a new world record in the Men's 100m Butterfly at the USA Swimming National Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana, July 9, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

 

SWIMMING

PHELPS breaks 100-metres fly world record: Michael Phelps broke the world record in the 100-metre butterfly at the U.S. national championships in Indianapolis, giving him ownership of five individual world marks.

The 14-time Olympic gold medalist swam the two-lap final in 50.22 seconds at the Indiana University Natatorium. He lowered Ian Crocker’s mark of 50.40 set at the 2005 world championships in Montreal.

Phelps holds world records in the 100 and 200 flys, 200 and 400 individual medleys, and the 200 free.

 

Related:

• Is Phelps the Greatest Olympian, by Mark Dowe

 

mark.dowe@googlemail.com

Wimbledon 2009: ‘Roger Federer claims Wimbledon title’…

WIMBLEDON 2009

ROGER FEDERER  beat Andy Roddick in a five-set thriller to become arguably the greatest player of all time.

The 27-year-old No. 2 seed clinched his sixth Wimbledon crown after beating the American No. 6 seed 5-7 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (7/5) 3-6 16-14 and is the out-right Grand Slam leader with 15 majors to his name.

In an epic battle at Wimbledon, Sunday 5 July, Roger Federer claimed his 6th Wimbledon title and becomes the best player of all time having won 15 Grand Slam tournaments.

Federer smashed down 50 aces and 107 winners in a classic encounter and the Swiss will now regain the number one status in the men’s rankings.

Roddick won the toss and elected to open the serving in a final which included Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras looking on from the Royal box.

It was a historical day for Federer with the 27-year-old having the chance to return to the top of the men’s game, as well as surpassing Sampras in the all-time Grand Slam standings.

The Swiss right-hander had been on cruise-control en route to the final, dropping just one set on the way, whereas his American opponent came onto Centre Court having played nearly 16 hours of tennis at SW19, including two brutal encounters against Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Murray.

 

STEAL

Both men refused to budge on serve in the opening exchanges as the first set looked a dead cert to be heading into a tie-break.

That was until the 11th game when Roddick got out of jail before stealing the first set.

The American had to fight off four break points which he managed to do more from Federer’s narrowly stray forehands, rather than the sixth seed’s own good play.

But the former US Open champion fully deserved his break-point opportunity in game 12 and he grasped his chance to re-write the script with both hands by forcing Federer into an error off an aggressive backhand.

The second set began like its predecessor with both competitors holding serve and despite being taken to 30-30 in the 10th game, Federer ensured the match would go to at least one tie-break and the Swiss would eventually claim it in spectacular fashion.

If the breaker did not start well for the 27-year-old, then it looked a whole lot worse when the No. 2 seed was staring down four set points and an impending Roddick serve.

But the now six times Wimbledon champion turned the tables from 6-2 down to earn a set point of his own after Roddick put a returnable backhand out of court.

And before the American could re-group it was a set apiece.

 

MOMENTUM

47 minutes later and the 2009 title took a huge swing in Federer’s favour after the soon-to-be World No. 1 claimed another tie-break, but did so in easier fashion.

The score went identically to the second set at 5-2, but in Federer’s favour, until Roddick responded with a forehand winner – however the Swiss dashed the American’s hopes of mounting a comeback, taking his third set point.

Even the staunchest of Roddick fans would have felt the Texan’s hopes would have diminished, but the man from Austin had other ideas and he sent the match into a decider with some gutsy tennis.

The 26-year-old snapped the Swiss’ serve in the third game and came through two tricky service games to hold, giving the Centre Court crowd the fifth and final set they relished so badly.

 

DECIDER

Just two games in and the final set had its first break point and it went Federer’s way, but the Swiss was unable to convert his sixth chance to snatch Roddick’s serve.

It was not long until the set surpassed the score-line which Rafael Nadal secured his first Wimbledon crown over Federer last year and just a game after that total, Roddick churned out two break points, but Federer swiftly snuffed those chances out.

The final set soon developed into a dog-fight of wills, but with the scores 14-15 and advantage Federer, the Swiss took his moment when Roddick tanked a forehand long.

 

Supplementary:

• Roger Federer’s career highlights, Credit: MSNBC

Slideshow - Click icon

 

 

 

 

 

mark.dowe@googlemail.com

Afghanistan: ‘NATO led troops per country’…

Image/Data Credit: International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)/Economist, July 2008.

Military: ‘The Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland’…

BAND OF THE ROYAL REGIMENT OF SCOTLAND

 

1^ST BATTALION SCOTS GUARDS

 

Military: ‘RAF Tornado 1.3 Mach Attack Aircraft’…

RAF TORNADO 1.3

 

AFGHANISTAN: ‘ABOVE ENEMY LINES’

– ‘Above Enemy Lines’ is delivered in a 5-part series. Click the small window icon button, or wait until thie first part completes, if wishing to watch further parts of the series.  

 

‘FIGHTER PILOT AFGHANISTAN’

– Following the pilots of Naval Strike Wing and IV Squadron RAF, during their operations in Afghanistan providing close air support for troops on the ground.

 

Afghanistan: ‘Fire in the Sky’…

Fire in the Sky: U.S Marines dismount their vehicles during a battle with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's Helmand province (Image Credit: Time.com, DAVID GUTTENFELDER / AP)

Calman Commission: ‘Analysis and Comment’…

ANALYSIS

From the desk of MD

THE CALMAN COMMISSION says its key consideration is “how to improve the financial accountability of the Scottish Parliament, while preserving the economic Union and the social Union which define Scotland’s relationship with the rest of the UK”. So, do its core recommendations on tax – devolving responsibility for raising a significant slice of income tax north of the border, together with outright responsibility for a parcel of small taxes and a new “prudential” power to borrow – deliver on its own stated priorities?

Sir Kenneth Calman, the Commission’s principal lead, reported on June 15: the findings appear at a time of exceptional turbulence in the UK’s public finances. Economic recession has cut a great swathe through a whole series of revenue streams, including tax on income. The UK Treasury expects income tax revenues to fall by £12-billion this year, compared with 2008/09. That equates to a massive 7.9% drop in just a single year. Planned public spending is still rising, however. Heavy increased government borrowing is taking the strain.

The political debate at Westminster is all about what painful mix of spending cuts and tax rises is needed to restore some semblance of balance to the UK’s books in coming years. Conservative party rhetoric that Britain faces a “debt crisis” suggests that real spending will have to be cut; by as much as 10% in areas like education, if the NHS is to be protected.

Iran Elections 2009: ‘Turbulent aftermath’…

An Iranian protester covers his face after a tear gas volley during clashes with riot police (Image Credit: Time.com, AFP/GETTY)

 

COMMENTARY

IN the days and weeks leading up to the general election in Iran, the colour of hope had been green. The country was awash, with many Iranians swathed in the bright greens of the opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, openly expressing their desire for political change; some young women even took off their hijabs.

Initially, it appeared that the militia had kept away from the protests and, as such naturally raised in Iran (and elsewhere) the hope of not only the possibility of a fair election, but a fair chance of a different future for the country.

Now, in the days since the results of the poll and the declaration of victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which has been called a “dangerous charade” by the opposition, we have witnessed, disturbingly, the slipping of the regime’s mask again.

Pictures emerged of beaten opposition supporters, their green shirts often bloodstained. Reformers in the hundreds were detained by the authorities; internet and phone access had also been suppressed.

Yet, even as the regime has tried to stamp down, it is clear that at least for the time being, the feelings awakened by the election are refusing to be trampled. Ordinary people in Tehran, for instance, took part in the most widespread protests since the Islamic Revolution in 1979; in one part of the city, hundreds formed a human chain and chanted their defiance.

Despite the violence, intimidation and heavy handed speech delivered by Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it might also be deemed an encouraging sign that the passions awakened by Mousavi will not itself be shoved back into the box.

 

PRESIDENT OBAMA has always said he wants Iran to “unclench the fist” that is now coming down hard on its own people. However, it will not be easy for Washington or other Western states to formulate an effective response to a leader emboldened by a new disregard for his own people. Khamenei’s provocative remarks and sentiments that Britain is the most “treacherous of Western nations” hardly appeases the wide divide and gulf that existed anyway.

A senior US state department official had said that the path ahead would be hard no matter who had won the election; that is certainly true. Mousavi, for instance, suggested no change in Iran’s refusal to suspend its nuclear programme.

 

SO, there is now a choice for the international community: engage with Ahmadinejad and potentially lend legitimacy to a questionable election or refuse to engage with him and potentially damage any chance there may be of him listening. It appears Obama remains determined to keep talking, and events elsewhere in the world may offer some encouragement.

Israeli’s newly elected prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a speech that he supports the establishment of a Palestinian state provided it has no military capabilities. It is the first time he has endorsed the notion of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and is an encouraging response to a policy of continual pressure from the US Government. Had Netanyahu continued to defy Mr. Obama, it no-doubt would have been much easier for Ahmadinejad in also defying him on abandoning Iran’s nuclear programme.

That particular programme and Ahmadinejad’s intolerant views on Israel have always been the focus of international comment and close scrutiny in the past; it’s particularly important, now, that the focus should also be on feeding the democratic seed in this potentially unstable country.

President Obama has not yet really had the chance to fully explore the chances of engagement with Iran and, despite the worrying signs from the streets of Tehran – including the murder of an Iranian woman protestor filmed on YouTube – it would be premature to end the policy of engagement before it has been given at least a chance to begin.

The international community has a duty in continuing to bear down hard on Iran. However, in doing so it must be careful not to blow out any hope that there may still be for constructive dialogue and change.

 

• IranWatch: Track the latest on the Iran election upheaval
• REUTERS: TIMELINE: Iranian election and aftermath
• Economist Leader (18 June, 2009): Iran and the world – “Iran rises up”
• Newsweek: “A Twitter Timeline of the Iran Election“
• REUTERS: “G8 deplores Iran violence, urges nuclear talks”

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

 

Public Notice/Environment: ‘Live Web Chat, UK Government’…

LIVE GOVERNMENT DEBATE: ENVIRONMENT

Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs will be holding a live web chat on Monday, 22 June 2009, at 09:45 BST, on the issue of ‘climate change adaptation’ and how measures might be introduced in combating the threat of rising sea levels.

Join the debate by registering, or by watching the Q & A live:

• Hilary Benn MP, live web chat 22 June 2009

 

INPUT/RESPONSE

Sir,

ACCORDING to the latest analysis of the impacts of climate change on the UK, in a recently released report, the risks of flooding is set to increase due to rising sea levels, more rapid erosion and increasingly severe and frequent rainstorms.

Without an increase in investment in flood defences (such as the Thames Barrier) an extra 350,000 properties will face a significant risk of flooding by the year 2035. The Environment Agency confirms that this will bring the total of potentially affected properties under threat to 840,000.

Yet, the continued building of properties on floodplains will increase the likelihood of flooding, particularly within low lying English regions because ground saturation levels are reduced and the water-table is invariably raised.

In combating the threat of rising sea-levels would it not be indicative in attempting to replace antiquated nineteenth century coastal sea-walls with sea-barriers that are fit for purpose in the twenty-first century? The threat of rising sea levels from the melting polar caps is a real and serious one that requires substantial investment along coastlines.

 

Selected Q & A: 

Contributor: … The latest climate change forecasts paint a bleak picture unless bold action is taken now. Why should we think the government has the political will to take such action when it is failing to comply with air pollution laws now (ie those for dangerous airborne particles or PM10) and looks likely to breach those for nitrogen dioxide, a toxic gas, from January 2010 by a very wide margin?

Minister: … It’s not the case that we haven’t taken action. The UK is one of the few countries that will meet its Kyoto commitments, and we’ll do more than we promised then. CO2 emissions are down compared with 20 years ago. On air quality, as you know there have been huge improvements over the last 50 years, but like a lot of other EU countries we have a remaining problem with cars and main roads. But we will deal with it.

 

Contributor: … As part of you role as Secretary of State, you are responsible for farming – what role do you see farmers as having in tackling climate change?

Minister: … Farmers will need to play their part, just like the rest of us; how they use fertiliser and how they feed their livestock, the way soil is tilled and whether we plant more trees than we cut down, and the kind of fuel used to run tractors. Agriculture is responsible for about 7% of our emissions.  On adaptation, farmers will need to store more water when it’s available and use it as efficiently as possible in the summer. Land can also help store floodwaters to help manage river flows – I visited a scheme that does just than in Lincolnshire last Friday.

 

Contributor: … Why, when they create so much Co2, are we building more coal power stations? surely it would be better to invest this money into clean fuel power stations.

Minister: … We need baseload capacity – to ensure that when we all switch on our kettles there is enough power. The three ways you can provide this are nuclear, gas and coal. The UK now has the toughest conditions in the world applying to new coal plants – all of them will have to demonstrate carbon capture and storage; in other words, taking out the carbon and storing it safely under the ground. Why is it important to develop this technology? Because look at how China and India generate their electricity – mainly by burning coal. We have to develop this technology if we are to get global emissions down.  

 

(MD) Contributor: … “Kyoto”. Would the minister agree that this protocol is effectively redundant with so many countries failing to implement it? Something new is needed in replacing Kyoto, particularly as Barack Obama seems ready to engage the US into dealing with global emissions.

Minister: … It’s clearly insufficient Mark. That’s why we need a new deal at Copenhagen this December.

 

Contributor: … On the medium emissions scenario sea level is set to rise 36 cm by 2080. Estimates of sea level rise have varied widely it seems certain that coastal flooding is going to be a bigger problem in the future. What effect will this have on off-shore wind and new nuclear power stations proposed for coastal areas?

Minister: … The projections will help us to manage that risk and ensure that any new plants are properly protected. We need that offshore wind power and, in fact, we are now producing more electricity from it than any other country in the world. 

 

Contributor: … Can we be a global frontrunner in fighting climate change issues while going ahead with the third runway at Heathrow?

Minister: … We will always have a choice about where we emit the much smaller amount of carbon that the world can cope with, but if we use that for flying then we will have to make savings elsewhere. It was a difficult decision, but we decided that any new runway would only get just over half the new slots BAA were looking for; the rest would only be released if the Committee on Climate Change decides that doing so would be consistent with our climate targets. In other words, we now have a constrained growth in aviation emissions and a target to get these emissions back by 2050 to where they were in 2005.

 

Contributor: … Why isn’t population growth considered in global warming? It is a major driver.

Minister: … It is one of the pressures. But we know that the best way to get population growth down in the developing world – compared to what it would otherwise be -  is for them to develop economically, plus getting girls into school and better access to contraception. So the question is how developing countries can make these changes while becoming more low carbon. 

 

(MD) Contributor: … The sea defences in the UK are insufficient for the modern day threat. How is the Govt prepared either through activating an early warning system or in the event of a mini tsunami happening on these shores?

Minister: … The best thing people can do is to get on the Environment Agency flood warning system – 08459 881188. It will send you an automatic message when flooding is threatened. As for investment, we have doubled what we spend on flood defences in the last 12 years, as a reult of which more homes are being protected. But sea level rise and more winter rainfall mean that we will have to do more. 

 

Contributor: … How Do We Know that the Atmospheric Build-up of Greenhouse Gases Is Due to Human Activity?

Minister: …  We know how much CO2 has been emitted and that about half of that has remained in the atmosphere; the rest has largely been absorbed by the oceans. We know from ice core records going back 400,000 years that the last 100 years has seen a sharp rise in CO2 concentrations which is unprecedented.

 

(MD) Contributor: … Does the minister accept that the carbon trading emissions scheme, part of an EU Directive, will be sufficient in helping emerging economies to invest in renewable technologies? So much is needing to be done in helping them.

Minister: … Given that we live in a market economy, carbon trading is one of the ways we can change the incentives in favour of low carbon development. But we will need to do other things as well; for example, making it a requirement that new products meet better emission standards – that’s what the agreement we reached with lighting retailers and manufacturers was all about.  Mr Edison’s lightbulb was a great invention but we now have lower carbon alternatives that do the job! 

 

Appendage:

• UK Climate Projections 

 

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

(Series:) ‘Scots from the Past’ – James Wilson

JAMES WILSON (1742-98)

ONE OF THE SIGNATORIES of both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, and the architect of the US Supreme Court, James Wilson preferred to remain out of the limelight. A stickler for legal principle, he nearly did not put his name to the Declaration of Independence because of his scruples that the Middle States, which he represented, were divided on the issue and that therefore he did not have a clear mandate to sign. By finally agreeing to endorse the Declaration, he broke the deadlock in which the Pennsylvania delegation found itself. His signature made sure that it opted for independence.

Born in Scotland in 1742, Wilson received his education at the University of St. Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow. At the age of twenty-three he set sail for the New World; aided by letters of introduction, he obtained employment there as a tutor with the College of Philadelphia, which shortly afterwards conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Attracted to law as a profession, he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1767 and set-up in practice in Reading the following year. He married Rachel Bird, who bore him six children, and began to build for himself a promising practice, as he personally handled nearly half the cases which were brought to the county court.

 

AS the years went by, he identified himself more and more with the colony in its battles with the British Government. He fought with the weapon he knew best, legal argument. In 1774 his essay on the ‘Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Government’ was distributed to members of the first Continental Congress and caused quite a stir. He was the first to articulate in legal form the claim that the British Parliament could have no jurisdiction over the American colony since there was no representation in Parliament for Americans, an argument reduced by others to the catchy slogan ‘No taxation without representation’. The statement that ‘all members of the British Empire are distinct states, independent of each other, but connected together under the same sovereign’, which appears in the Declaration, is a clear indication of how influential his arguments were.

As a member of the Pennsylvanian Provincial Congress in 1775 he made a passionate speech on the possibility of an unconstitutional act being made by Parliament. Here, in embryo, is the principle of judicial review, the American system in which acts passed by government can be checked against the constitution which was to evolve in the Supreme Court.

During the next years he was a member of the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, where a fellow delegate described him, thus:

… Government seems to have been his particular study. All the political institutions of the world he knows in detail, and can trace the causes and effects of every revolution from the earliest stages of the Grecian commonwealth down to the present time.

Wilson spoke throughout his career of the need for parliaments to contain a full representation of the people they governed. Only then, he said, could national government be strong and at the same time command respect. This led him logically to consider the problem of poor representation, which was plaguing Congress at the time. Freely he spoke against representatives who did not take their roles seriously enough and who stayed away in their home states, neglecting their responsibilities in the National Congress and making efficient government almost impossible. There was a prime illustration of this when, in 1783, American diplomats were sent back to Congress for the final version of the Treaty of Paris, designed to end the war between Britain and America. A quorum of nine states was needed to ratify the treaty, but there seemed little hope that this would be achieved. Weeks passed and there was even an attempt to convene Congress in the bedroom of a sick delegate in order to get approval before the long-awaited treaty was confirmed.

 

IN 1789, Wilson became professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania and in the same year, associate justice of the Supreme Court, the institution he had helped to create; but his performance here was less prophetic and original than his early career had promised.

 

(SERIES) EPILOGUE

‘Scots from the Past’, a series of separate articles, focussed on a number of different Scottish characters who, in one way or another, added to the extraordinary talent, expertise and skill that Scotland has offered to the world. Ever since the European Renaissance and revolution between the 14-18^th centuries that brought to the world cultural and educational reform, numerous Scots emerged as frontrunners that were either catalysts or influential in providing momentum for change in society. History clearly shows that Scotland, a country itself transformed through the Renaissance, has often promoted its scientific and technological developments and inventions for the benefit of the wider world. It has often been central too, or expanded upon, almost every known area and niche within public life.

The articles offered in this series – click the tag-footer ‘scots from the past’ which will produce a summary of journals previously published – is only but a small representative sample of talent and innovative skill that Scotland has produced and offered to the world from its rich cultural past. I could have looked at more well known Scots such as James Clerk Maxwell or Alexander Graham Bell from the field of Science; renowned Scottish writers like Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott or Thomas Carlyle; or, pioneers such as Sir Hugh (Lord) Dowding RAF and Sir Alexander Fleming (Medicine) – but, a great deal is already known about these people with a great deal already in the public domain concerning their enormous contributions to society. Lord Dowding, however, may likely appear as a separate entry, at some time in the future: Dowding’s role in the Battle of Britain was crucial, in preparation before it and strategically during it.

During the eighteenth century Scotland underwent an amazing transformation. Demoralised by economic failure and civil wars, it somehow managed to turn defeat into glorious opportunity, its brightest minds leading a Renaissance which has lasted over two hundred years. Their achievements outside Scotland led Winston Churchill to say:

… Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.

At the edge of Europe, this small nation gave us the invention of the steam engine, the telephone, radar, and television. Scots explored the globe, expanding our understanding of the world, while medical discoveries like penicillin changed our view of disease. It was due in no small part to the ingenious and indefatigable Scots that England’s colonies became an empire at all.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

 

Scotland is rich in heritage, culture and history.

Iraq War Public Inquiry: ‘British Government & Sir John Chilcot’…

GUARDIAN ARTICLE

RESPONDING to Richard Norton-Taylor, after an article written by Mr. Norton-Taylor entitled “Another Whitehall Whitewash” appeared on the website of the Guardian newspaper, dated 15 June 2009.

Richard Norton-Taylor writes:

… The reason why the government wants it to be held behind closed doors – a weapon allowing Whitehall to control proceedings – is to enable it to protect itself, and individuals, from embarrassment. To drive home the point, the members of the inquiry, led by Sir John Chilcot, the epitome of a Whitehall mandarin, will be made privy counsellors, told to swear an ancient oath of secrecy.

… We already know a great deal about how the Iraqi banned weapons dossier was manipulated by Whitehall officials and intelligence chiefs, at the behest of their political masters – most notably, Tony Blair. We know from a leaked Downing Street memo, marked ” secret and strictly personal – UK eyes only”, that, at a meeting Blair chaired on 23 July 2002, nearly a year before the invasion, Sir Richard Dearlove, then head of MI6, warned that in Washington “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy”; and Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, said “it seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action … But the case was thin.”

 

RESPONSE

From the desk of MD

IT DOES concern me somewhat when, again, another private examination is to be held into the Iraq War. The very definition and mention of ‘private’ does not meet anywhere near what the general public had demanded from Day 1, since the fatal error was made of joining the United States to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein. Intelligence, as we now know, was bereft of credibility; the government machinery used in reaching the political decisions that were made, crucial to underpin in any further public inquiry, will again remain absent from public scrutiny. The Government promised a more open and transparent approach once troops had left Iraq, and now – after waiting several months – the British Government seems to be denying an inquiry to those many families whose lives have been shattered and torn apart after having been lost on active service in Iraq.

The premise of its invasion was based on Saddam Hussein having acquired weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capability that was a threat not only to the Middle East, but to the wider stability of the world. British troops invaded Iraq on the clear assumption that Iraq’s WMD programme was capable to deploy within 45-minutes. The Attorney General at the time, Lord Goldsmith, reckoned such intelligence was enough for the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, being justified in the decisions he took. These are matters, now, for open public argument, not a right of Government to continue to hide behind its veil of secrecy.

What seems likely, though, is that an inquiry will run along similar lines to that of the Franks inquiry. Margaret Thatcher had asked the academic and diplomat Lord Franks to examine claims that her Government had been caught unawares by the 1982 invasion and that the ensuing war had been avoidable. The Falklands War, albeit on a smaller scale, both tactically and operationally, in comparison with Iraq, shares (politically) similar backdrops.

Political commentator Hugo Young, for instance, wrote at the time: “It itemises one unfortunate misjudgement after another, producing a catalogue of errors and missed opportunities which provide the raw material for a formidable indictment.” Indictment, is of course, a key concern and fact which is why no-doubt the British Government has opted, again, for a behind closed-doors inquiry into the Iraq war.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

 

The best in journalism and a voice for equitable public debate.

Afghanistan: ‘Downtime’…

U.S. Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade rest inside a tent at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan's Helmand province. (Image Credit -- Time.com, DAVID GUTTENFELDER / AP)

 

Related:

New York Times, 15 June 2009:

“U.S. General Takes Helm in Afghanistan“, General Stanley A. McChrystal

“KABUL, Afghanistan — On the heels of the most violent week in Afghanistan since 2001, General Stanley A. McChrystal assumed command of NATO and American forces in Afghanistan at a ceremony in Kabul.

In replacing General David D. McKiernan, Gen. McChrystal will try to turn around the situation in Afghanistan as Gen. David Petraeus did in Iraq by attempting to stem an increasingly violent insurgency.”

– General McChrystal also assumes command of British troops in the province.

 

Supplementary:

Q&A: A U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan, used as a hub for operations in Afghanistan, has started to shut down.

FACTBOX, Reuters : Some facts about U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan

 

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

Sunday Teaching & Lessons: ‘The Transfiguration’…

NOTE

WELCOME to readers and observers to this site who may be visiting for the first time.

Written submission on the Transfiguration will be made over the next 6-weeks, this particular journal being updated and frontloaded as work is produced on each consecutive Sunday. Work on this area will continue, therefore, and not be fully complete until mid-July.

On completion, ‘Sunday Teaching & Lessons’ will not resume, again, until the autumn.

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

 

TRANSFIGURATION

And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias; who appeared in glory, and spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. (Luke 9: 30, 31)

• (1) Sunday, 14 June 2009

Teaching from Scotland

THE Transfiguration of Jesus was intended to teach clearly the doctrine of His supreme divinity. This is the inference which the Apostle Peter made: “We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

God in human nature.

I direct your attention to the vast importance of this doctrine. I regard it not merely as a most amazing truth – that the very Being who spoke all things into existence has walked in human nature on this earth. The doctrine forms the pledge of our eternal safety. If the God who made the heavens is on our side, who shall be against us? He created this vast universe and, if He is resolved to save, He is without doubt able to destroy all our spiritual foes. He is able to accomplish all the purposes of His grace, to carry forward to perfection His glorious work and present the redeemed creation perfect in the view of all the universe.

Teachings for Sunday, 14 June 2009, are given from the Gospel according to St. Luke.

Great care was therefore taken that this preliminary truth should be fully established. It was not enough that the prophets had spoken in exalted terms of the surpassing glories of a coming age, when the Son of God should become a sojourner in this world. It was not enough that a star from heaven should announce His coming, and that the hosts of heaven should proclaim His birth on the plains of Bethlehem, in songs of praise. Men were apt to forget, when they beheld a lowly son of Adam, that they beheld that glorious Being whom unnumbered angels adored in heaven; even His disciples did not understand the dignity of their Master. He therefore not merely put forth His omnipotent power continually, displaying His unsearchable wisdom, manifesting the most unheard-of benevolence. To impress the truth indelibly on their minds and make it plain to all future generations, He took with Him three chosen disciples and, instead of His glory merely shining in rays through the chinks of that covering of flesh with which He was clothed, the covering itself was removed and His whole glory blazed forth as it does from that glorious throne on which He shall sit throughout eternal ages.

Rather than attempt to describe the glory of this scene, we must learn lessons from it. The inspired writer has left us nothing to do but wonder and adore. He has set before us the Redeemer surrounded, on a lofty mountain, by the representatives of both worlds – the Church on earth and in heaven – engaged in deep conversation on the most important event of all time. Men shall never understand what is meant by this glorious Transfiguration till their spirits are brought into God’s presence, where they shall see His majesty and all His bright spirits face to face – knowing as they are known.

Still, there are many important truths to be learned from this wonderful display of glory. Let us suppose, for example, as we are apt to do, that this was the most astonishing event in the Saviour’s history on earth. It was far more astonishing that His glory should have been obscured so long – that it should have been obscured at all. For 4000 years before He came into our world, He had been arrayed in the same majesty, behind the scene which separated the eternal world from human view. From eternal ages, before the foundations of earth were laid, He had been the same glorious Being. And during all the eternity to come, He will be the object of all worship, the glorious Ruler of the universe.

 

• (2) Sunday, 21 June 2009 

A glimpse into heaven.

THE APPEARENCE of Moses and Elias, and their conversation, teach us important lessons suited to our present circumstances. Moses and Elias, then glorified spirits, stood before the disciples in their distinct personalities. In reflecting on eternity, one is apt to wonder if all the souls of men in heaven will recognise each other amid the mighty throng of the angels; whether those who have gone down to the regions of despair will recognise, among the vast crowd, their companions in wickedness; whether exalted friendships will endure in heaven; whether deep-rooted dislike will continue to boil and fill the lost with eternal wretchedness.

Now the glimpse into the invisible world which this opening (and other) passages of Scripture give us proves that all this will be the case. Although we cannot understand how spirits stand apart from each other with marks of individuality, we know that all angels are distinguishable; so Michael, for instance, is not confounded with Gabriel. And when the last trumpet shall sound, Christ will descend with a whole crowd of spirits all distinct, all hasting to join the bodies arising from the earth. Here on Mount Tabor we behold two men, after hundreds of years mingling with the spirits in heaven, now standing with all their marks of identity, as distinct as when previously they sojourned on earth. Therefore, when any of your friends go into the eternal world, do not think they are lost in the crowd of spirits or that, when your spirit enters eternity, you will fail to recognise those whom you knew on earth and be recognised by them. That spirit which you imagine to be invisible will have some distinct marks of identity which spirits can discern; and you and I and all men will find ourselves distinct objects of attention in heaven or in hell.

This is not merely curious speculation; it is fitted powerfully to stimulate to duty and deter from sin. There is nothing, for example, sweeter on earth than friendship; and though all the dear ties of this life must be broken by the ruthless hand of death, yet if we are united by the more sacred tie of Christianity, we shall be joined again by a tie which shall never be dissolved, when we reach the glorious paradise of God. There we shall be purified and made more glorious than eye has seen or ear heard or has entered into the heart of man to conceive. In heaven there will be the welcome of friends, the rapturous meeting with those glorious men who stand prominent among the saints – which no grief shall cloud, no pain interrupt, no death destroy. But there will also be the fearful meeting of sinners who taught each other to sin; their ruined souls will haunt each other with eternal terror. Let sinners in Zion be afraid; let trembling seize the hypocrites.

 

• (3) Sunday, 28 June 2009 

The appearance of Moses and Elias

Why did two glorified spirits come down to meet the Saviour on this mountain? It was to indicate the deep interest of heaven in what was soon to take place on Calvary, and to rebuke the awful indifference which reigned in Judea. The merchant was continuing his trade, the labourer his toil; the high priest arrayed in his glorious garments was continuing to slay the sacrifices, to carry their blood within the veil, ignorant that the great sacrifice had come and that all those emblems were about to vanish away for ever. Even the disciples who had been left at the base of the mountain had not penetrated the meaning of these events, while those who stood in the presence of the heavenly visitors only gazed with wonder and spoke what they did not understand.

Moses and Elias came down to manifest the deep interest which heaven felt in an event now imminent, for which all the saints had longed, in the faith of which they had died, and towards which their whole gaze was still directed. Nothing is more remarkable than the striking contrast between the displays of feeling on earth and in heaven. Men have always been steeped in profound security before the plans of God, before the affairs of heaven above and of hell beneath, and even those events in the spiritual world which have taken place before their eyes. Thus angels and spirits of men in the regions of blessedness, beyond the possibility of change, must come down to awaken them from their lethargy, to consider the glories of salvation.

But why did all the spirits in heaven not come down to meet the Saviour on this mountain? Or if only a deputation must be sent, why did Abraham, the friend of God, not come? Or Joshua, who led the people into the promised land? Or Caleb, who followed God fully? Or Samuel, for whom all Israel mourned when he died? Or David, the man after God’s own heart, whose harp had long been resounded the praises of the Messiah? Or Isaiah, who described in such glowing terms the glories of the coming age? Or Jeremiah, who longed that the transgressions of Judah might cease and that the glory of the latter day might shed its radiance on desolate Jerusalem?

Very little consideration is necessary to convince us that Moses and Elias, though in some respects less distinguished than many of the rest, stood far above them by their exalted offices. The Old Testament is divided into two parts: the Law and the Prophets. “The law and the prophets were until John; from this time the kingdom of God is preached.” That whole dispensation, with all that was done and said under it, may therefore be ranked under these two heads; while the New Testament is ranked under one – the everlasting gospel revealed in all its clearness to every nation and kindred and tongue and people by Jesus Christ and His Apostles. Now on Mount Tabor we have representatives of all the three. The whole line of priests and ceremonies may be traced up to Moses, the whole train of prophets to Elias; while in Christ Jesus we have the beginning and the ending of the plan of divine love. We have therefore by far the most significant group that could possibly have assembled, the most fitted to reflect light on the pages of inspired Scripture.

 

• (4) Sunday, 05 July 2009 

Their conversation.

It must be highly significant to ponder their subject, for all the priests were represented there in the person of Moses, all the prophets in the person of Elias, all the Apostles in the person of their great Master. It was therefore a full muster of the Church of God in all its parts, and under both dispensations. What is the subject of their discourse? “They spake of [Christ’s] decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem”.

From this we are to learn the important lesson, that God’s object, from the foundation of the world, has been to set forth the atonement of Jesus Christ. As if to confute all those blind high priests, who were continually offering sacrifices whose meaning they could not understand – as if to cover with eternal confusion all those foolish interpreters who have laboured so long to darken the counsel of God and heap up useless learning to prove that the Jewish ritual had no reference to Christ’s atonement – Moses himself was brought down from heaven after two thousand years and, from a mountain in Judea, pointing to the cross of Christ as what explains all the strange ceremonies, the apparent enigmas, of his mysterious law. As if to confound all those foolish students of sacred prophecy who then laboured to darken  counsel by words without knowledge – and who, in after ages, have used their cumbrous erudition to rob man of his only hope by claiming that the prophets of God did not speak of an atonement – we find Elias coming down from his eternal rest to declare that the cross formed on earth the subject of all his preaching and was now in heaven the foundation of his joy.

And, as if to preclude the possibility of those awful perversions of the false seducers who should afterwards arise – even denying the Lord that brought them and endeavouring to banish out of the world the recollection of that death by which alone men can be saved – we have the Saviour openly disowning such, and setting forth the decease which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem as the great event in His history on earth, fitted to inspire sinners with courage and joy.

The great lesson which we are to learn from the text is that the death of Christ is what gives meaning to the whole Old Testament dispensation, to all the predictions of the prophets; especially on this day we should bear it in mind. The economy of Moses was evidently only a full development of the promise made to Abraham. Let everyone consider the temple at Jerusalem, its priests, its washings, its sacrifices, the blood which was constantly shed, without which no one could approach God in peace. Then let him compare them with the full disclosure made of Christ under the New Testament and he will see that they accord exactly with the statement that the Apostles spoke “none other things than those which … Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer” to secure salvation for man.

We cannot imagine what idea anyone can have of God who could dream for an instant that it was otherwise. What advantage could there have been in slaying so many thousands of innocent creatures? They were God’s property, and it would have only been an aggravation of man’s offence to slay them if this had not been appointed to direct the thoughts of the Jews forward to the sacrifice of Christ. Besides, what favour could have been shown to the Children of Israel in bringing them into Egyptian bondage, in detaining them for so many years in the wilderness of Arabia, in loading them with a burden of ceremonies which they were almost unable to bear, and forcing them to slay their flocks in sacrifice, unless an important meaning was conveyed which was hidden from the inhabitants of other lands – unless all this was fitted to point to the atonement which would blot out their sins, and secure for them everlasting habitations? When viewed in this light, all is consistent, all is glorious; otherwise it is an unmeaning riddle.

Let no one ask why God permitted so much time to elapse before the great Redeemer came. It taught men, by its awful consequences, how evil and how bitter sin was. It exercised the faith of the ancient saints in the truth of God’s promise, and it was consistent with other works of the Almighty. When He created the world, darkness brooded at first over the face of the deep, then there was the dim twilight and, last of all, He placed the sun in the heavens. So, from the time of the Fall, God had thoughts of love towards men and never left them without a witness of this. He set up a school in Judea, and by pictures and symbols He trained up a family for heaven – making the light which first glimmered in paradise gradually become brighter and the truth clearer, until at last the Sun of righteousness arose, with healing in his wings. And, as Noah opened the window of the ark, sent out first one messenger, then another and at last came forth himself on the surface of the earth, which has just emerged from the waters of the deluge – so Christ sent messenger after messenger, and set up representation after representation, until He himself shook all nations and suddenly came to His temple.

 

Dedication:

• “The Voice”

 

[…]

 

The Lord taught us to pray together, saying:

THE LORD’S PRAYER

OUR Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy Name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

 

Amen.

[St Matthew 6:9-13]

 

The writer was formerly commissioned as a Boys Brigade Officer by the Reverend Robert Lynn, St. Leonard’s Parish Church, Ayr.

The Boys Brigade is a commissioned body and authority whose aim is to “advance the Kingdom of Christ”.

The Boys’ Brigade was founded in Glasgow on 4th October 1883 by Sir William Alexander Smith.

United Nations: ‘Resolution passed imposing tougher sanctions against North Korea’…

NORTH KOREA

From the desk of MD

THE United Nations Security Council, today, approved tough new sanctions against North Korea over its recent nuclear tests.

The resolution issued imposes new restrictions on the country’s weapons experts and financial dealings, and allows inspections, seizure and detection of suspect cargo in ports and on the high seas. It does not, though, authorise the use of force.

The United States insists that the sanctions will have “teeth to bite”. The US envoy to the United Nations says that Pyongyang could react “in a fashion that would be further provocation”.

The resolution which was initially sponsored by Britain, France, Japan, South Korea and the United States was endorsed by all members of the UN Security Council. Of significance, is that both China and Russia – which had been reluctant to support punitive measures against North Korea, in the past – supported the resolution, which is now fully binding under international law.

Britain’s UN deputy ambassador Philip Parham said the unanimous adoption of the text showed the international community was united in condemning North Korea’s proliferation activities: 

… We urge North Korea to refrain from any further provocative actions.

… North Korea should return to the negotiating table and engage seriously with the international community.

 The compromise resolution “condemns in the strongest terms” the North Korean nuclear test and “demands that the DPRK (North Korea) not conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology”.

Specifically, the resolution states :

… That Pyongyang shall abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner and immediately cease all related activities.

North Korea has previously warned it would consider any sanctions a ‘declaration of war’ and would respond with “corresponding self-defense measures.”

A more likely response would be the reported US assessment by intelligence officials to President Obama that Pyongyang intends to respond to any new UN resolution condemning its actions with another nuclear test.

Asked about how the Council would react to any new North Korean test, Mr. Parham said:

… We would take it badly. Our emphasis has to be on implementing this resolution as effectively as possible.

North Korea launched a long-range missile in April, which was roundly condemned by the Security Council. Pyongyang then retaliated by announcing on May 25 it had staged a second nuclear weapons test, following one in 2006.

North Korea also declared the armistice ending the 1950-53 Korean War as void.

 

Related:

• New York Times, (Saturday, 13 June 2009):  North Korea to ‘Weaponise’ Plutonium

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

Biotechnology: ‘Third-wave generation’…

INDUSTRIAL BIOTECH

From the desk of MD

FOR SOME TIME now the public has perceived biotechnology to mean the dangerous meddling of genetics in food crops. But biotechnology is of course about much more than transgenic food (i.e. that, which describes a plant that contains genes from a different species, transferred using the techniques of genetic modification): it also encompasses, for example, the use of microbes to make pharmaceutical medicines. Yet, the many benefits of the first wave of biotech products, in medicine, have regrettably been overshadowed by the supposed ‘risks’ of biotech’s second wave, in agriculture. Prince Charles, for instance, was vociferous in his attacks against furthering the promotion of GM crops, despite the lack of scientific evidence that GM crops raises public health concerns because of cross-fertilisation. Might, though, its third wave – dubbed “industrial biotech”, “white biotech” or “green chemistry” – resolve the image problem that biotech has been tagged with?

As with other biotechnological variations, industrial biotech involves the desire to seek engineering biological molecules and microbes with attractive new and additional features. What is different, however, is how they are then used in replacing chemical processes with biological ones. Industrial biotech offers huge scope: whether this is to produce chemicals for other processes or to create biopolymers with new properties, harnessing biology in accomplishing what was previously achieved only through big and dirty chemical factories, is an exciting period for expecting cleaner and greener ways of doing things.

 

IN 2007, sales of industrial-biotech products were in the region of $140-billion, and 6% of all chemical sales were generated with the help of biotechnology. Experts in the field envisage a future in which bio-refineries are dotted around the countryside producing fuels and other chemicals from biomass such as agricultural waste.

DSM, a company based in Heerlen in the Netherlands, has been working in industrial biotechnology for years. In the 1990s it started producing enzymes for cheese and omega-6 fatty acids for infant formulas. Later, it went on to develop a biological process to produce cephalosporin, an antibiotic drug, in a much cleaner way than the chemical processes that were previously used in the manufacture of the drug. DSM’s most recent effort has been to find a biological route in producing a chemical known as succinic acid (C₄H₆O₄), which is used to make a range of products including spandex, resins, acidity regulators in foods, de-icing salts and biopolymers for agriculture.

The chemical processes involved in making succinic acid are dependant upon the use of crude oil or natural gas. DSM’s biological approach is based on fermentation using enzymes and genetically engineered microbes. Preliminary findings, so far, suggest that the pilot-production phase has been successful. The next step will be moving the process on to a demonstration factory in Lestrem, France, which is due to be running by the end of this year. If, as expected, that goes well, a much bigger commercial operation will follow. As well as making succinic acid from biologically derived starch, rather than fossil fuels, its overall process also consumes 40% less energy and produces fewer carbon dioxide emissions.

 

ENZYMES are the first tool of choice in white biotechnology, particularly where chemical conversion processes are fairly simple and straightforward. Part of the supply market has focussed its attention on supplying optimised-enzymes that help to make chemical reactions happen faster, or at lower temperatures. This is an important factor because it can make the difference between a commercial and a non-commercial process. Industrial enzymes are used in areas such as detergents, brewing or in producing animal feeds.

If, however, a more complicated series of reactions is required, or the enzyme in the process is used up during conversion and needs to be regenerated, the use of microbes becomes essential. Microbes can accomplish and perform literally hundreds of tasks simultaneously and are able to recreate the enzymes they need.

Microbe creation requires meeting a complexity of needs: first, it involves starting off with one that does part of the job in question, then convincing the microbe to specialise in that activity. DSM, for example, found its yeast microbe living in elephant dung, where it later broke down cellulose in starch. Further developments include eliminating the things the microbe does but which are not related to the task in hand by inactivating non-essential genes and genetic material. Then, modified microbes are produced in large numbers and those that are best suited are selected. The result is a bug that is specially and genetically adapted for a particular task.

 

PROPONENTS of biotech’s third-wave are optimistic that they can avoid the pitfalls that hindered greatly the adoption of biotech crops. Critics, like Prince Charles, suggest such crops are unnatural “Frankenfoods” that extend primarily for corporate profit and control of agriculture.

Unlike transgenic foods (e.g. tomatoes), industrial-biotech products will not be sold directly to consumers. Instead of displacing “natural” products with bioengineered alternatives, as in agriculture, industrial biotechnology generally displaces fossil fuels and their associated chemical processes with greener biological alternatives. It is suggested this will make it easier to convince people of its benefits, rehabilitating the concept of biotechnology more widely. It certainly has credibility.

However, ethical questions are still posed. One problem, for instance, is that even though the raw materials used in industrial biotechnology may not be derived from fossil fuels, they may still be capable of stirring up controversial issues. Using food crops like maize as a raw material to produce biofuel is already contentious because of its direct impact on food prices. Growing non-food crops for industrial use, too, is problematic because it can reduce further the availability of land for food production. Reducing the availability of land (a scarce resource) can only increase the likelihood of starvation and drought in various parts of the world.

The use of agricultural waste is highly beneficial. Converting agricultural waste into other chemicals (including fuels) using industrial biotechnology could replace as much as 25% of global oil consumption. Waste is always in abundance. Raw materials might also be grown on marginal land which is unsuitable for food production, but that might implode on biodiversity. The potential for a new, greener chemicals industry within remote rural areas, creating jobs and economy, is undoubtedly industrial biotechnology’s most promising feature.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

Sunday Teaching & Lesson: ‘A song and dance about nothing’…

ISAIAH 24

Everyone will meet the same fate – the priests and the people, slaves and masters, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, rich and poor. The earth will lie shattered and ruined. The Lord has spoken and it will be done.

The earth dries up and withers; the whole world grows weak; both earth and sky decay. The people have defiled the earth by breaking God’s laws and by violating the covenant he made to last for ever. (Isaiah 24: 2-5)

 

 FORMLESS SOCIETY

Teaching from Scotland

DWELL LONG on Isaiah 24. In this chapter Isaiah is looking through binoculars into the future yet is also describing what has been happening since the disgraced first couple were expelled from Eden. That is the genius of much biblical prophecy: it looks in several directions at once.

The carefree song of the godless is silenced by the collapse of the economy (v 7) but the song of the redeemed (or the remnant of God’s people) is jubilant. God can be praised in all circumstances for who he is, even when righteousness is lacking in society and believers suffer along with the rest.

The key image is in verse 10. ‘Ruined’ is literally ‘formless’, the same word as is used for the shapeless matrix from which God precipitated water and solid matter (Genesis 1: 2). It is the world uncreated; it is Babel revisited.

Teachings for Sunday, 07 June 2009, are given from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah, chapter 24.

Commentator Alec Motyer describes Isaiah’s ‘formless’ city as ‘without the ordering, life-giving hand of God, opting for a life on its own, within itself, depending on itself. Consequently, it is unstable and without purpose, spinning on the wheel but having dismissed the potter, its ever changing shapes and fashions not dictated by purpose but by whimsy. Life is simply one thing after another. Rejecting the moral absolutes of verse 5, everything is relative and ultimately individualistic. Humankind’s great world city is the “city without meaning” … where they thought they could find on earth and within themselves all they needed for secure community and a future, and they found only disorder, division and meaningless’ (The Prophecy of Isaiah, IVP 1993, p 201).

You will recognise much that is familiar there. So when you next lift your voice in praise, lift your eyes also in sad reflection upon the world around you. The songs of the carefree may still echo through the streets, but the lights by which people walk keep going out.

The church is responsible to make the song of the redeemed heard above the unholy row, and to ensure that the light of the world shines brightly to guide to God those who can see it.

 

The Lord taught us to pray together, saying:

THE LORD’S PRAYER

OUR Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy Name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

 

Amen.

[St Matthew 6:9-13]

 

The writer was formerly commissioned as a Boys Brigade Officer by the Reverend Robert Lynn, St. Leonard’s Parish Church, Ayr.

The Boys Brigade is a commissioned body and authority whose aim is to “advance the Kingdom of Christ”.

The Boys’ Brigade was founded in Glasgow on 4th October 1883 by Sir William Alexander Smith.

President Obama: ‘D-Day anniversary speech’…

PRESIDENT OBAMA

RECALLING the “unimaginable hell” of the D-Day suffering, President Obama paid tribute to the Allied landings that broke Nazi Germany’s grip on France and which turned the tide of history.

In an impassioned speech, Mr. Obama said:

… The sheer improbability of this victory is part of what makes D-Day so memorable.

Speaking under a sunny sky at the US Cemetery on cliffs overlooking Omaha Beach and other landing sites where allied soldiers established a beachhead, 65 years ago, under the withering fire of Nazi troops awaiting the Allies’ cross-channel gamble, Mr. Obama predicted:

… Long after our time on this Earth has passed, one word will still bring forth the pride and awe of men and women who will never meet the heroes who sit before us: D-Day.

The President visited an American battlefield museum with his wife, Michelle; laid a wreath in honour of the fallen; greeted members of the U.S. military; and mingled with World War II veterans.

The cliffs of Normandy are still pocked with gun emplacements and other remnants of the war, including the white headstones of buried US troops.

Mr. Obama said the lessons of the D-Day pivotal effort are eternal:

… Friends and veterans, what we cannot forget — what we must not forget — is that D-Day was a time and a place where the bravery and selflessness of a few was able to change the course of an entire century.

 

Caen, France: President Obama speaks to veterans on the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

 

SPEAKING at a time when President Obama recently assumed the role of US Commander in Chief, and continues to direct wars in Iraq and Afghanistan both of which have lasted longer than the U.S. involvement in World War II, the US President described in stark terms the harsh conditions the Allied forces faced at Normandy. He noted how the assault forces were left vulnerable to Nazi guns in their path and how, in many ways, the seaborne invasion plan went awry:

… When the ships landed here at Omaha, an unimaginable hell rained down on the men inside.

… Many never made it out of the boats.

But the combined efforts of the Allies prevailed that ultimately opened a path towards Paris and into Germany which made victory possible over the Nazi’s. Mr. Obama paid tribute to the Allies – the British, the Canadian, the French as well as the Russians, “who sustained some of the war’s heaviest casualties on the Eastern front.”

… At an hour of maximum danger, amid the bleakest of circumstances, men who thought themselves ordinary found it within themselves to do the extraordinary.

… They fought out of a simple sense of duty — a duty sustained by the same ideals for which their countrymen had fought and bled for over two centuries.

 

IN A POIGNANT salutation President Obama paid tribute to individual veterans of the Normandy landings, including one veteran, Jim Norene, who fought as a member of the 101st Airborne Division:

… Last night, after visiting this cemetery for one last time, he passed away in his sleep.

… Jim was gravely ill when he left his home, and he knew that he might not return. But just as he did 65 years ago, he came anyway. May he now rest in peace with the boys he once bled with, and may his family always find solace in the heroism he showed here.

 

YESTERDAY, Friday 5 June 2009, Mr. Obama witnessed the Nazi ovens and satellite concentration camp at Buchenwald, its clock tower frozen at the time of liberation, and said the leaders of today must not rest against the spread of evil.

The US President challenged Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly cast doubt on the Holocaust, to visit Buchenwald, calling it the “ultimate rebuke” to those who deny that its horrors ever happened.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

D-Day Anniversary: ‘Guardian editorial & response’…

D-DAY: 65^TH ANNIVERSARY

RESPONDING to the Editor of the Guardian newspaper after its editorial entitled, “D-day anniversary: Britain’s good war”, appeared on its website, dated 6 June 2009.

The Editor writes:

… The allied invasion of occupied France which began on the Normandy beaches in the grey light of dawn 65 years ago today was not the turning point of world war two. That accolade belongs to the battlefield exploits of the Red Army, which also bore the brunt of the conflict for longer and killed four times as many German soldiers as the rest of the allies put together. Nevertheless, D-day was seen at the time, and has rightly been seen ever since, as a defining moment in the war and in shaping the postwar world. For this country, D-day has also become pivotal in the most potent of our modern national stories – the moment when the four-year threat of German invasion was finally turned away, when the liberation of Western Europe could begin and when the possibility of the return to peacetime began to take shape.

 

POIGNANT

From the desk of MD

THE 65^th ANNIVERSARY of the Normandy landings is a poignant reminder of the sacrifice that was made so that these shores could be free from the tyranny of Hitler’s reign. The Allies sent over a million men to free Europe.

As the morning dawned over France, five desolate beaches on the northern French coast – codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword – became the scene of the largest military invasion in the world’s history. Under the supreme command of US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, around one million men, in 4000 ships, disembarked to begin their assault on Rommel’s “Atlantic Wall” and to battle their way into France in an attempt to stop the brutal juggernaut machine of Hitler.

The combined Allied troops, including French, Canadians, British and Americans, were spearheaded by units of the US 82^nd and 101^st Airborne Divisions who landed near the town of Saint Mere-Eglise; British commandos were meanwhile taking key bridges, notably the strategic ‘Pegasus Bridge’, and knocking-out Nazi communications. Plans for the Normandy invasion – known as Operation Overlord – had been underway since January of 1944, but were threatened by the worst Channel weather in 25-years. Taking advantage of a break in the weather, Eisenhower ordered the fleet to set sail. Four of the beaches surrendered early, but Omaha proved more of a problem. The final campaign, though, to defeat Germany had begun.

 

ONCE AGAIN, I believe it is time that Bomber Command is recognised for its bravery in the face of extreme adversity given the level of hostility this country was faced with during the Second World War. The British Government has continually rebuked that request because of the heavy casualties and fatalities the RAF had inflicted on Germany, many of the bombing raids on civilian areas. But, the RAF had no choice in seeking to bring Hitler to heel. For those who could have acted much more, like the Church, did not do so, for reasons that are known unto them.

– Many thanks to those readers who recommended my response on this topic on the website of the Guardian newspaper.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

 

The best in journalism and a voice for equitable public debate.

 

 

 

 

INTERVIEW

Antony Beevor: “History has not emphasised enough the suffering of French civilians during the War“

Independent: Interview by Deborah Orr, Saturday, 6 June 2009

 

In a deeply penetrating interview, Ms. Orr writes:

… Beevor believes that expectations of history have altered. ‘People are fascinated about what it was like to be caught up in these events, with no control over their own fate’.

 

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Essay: ‘History of the D-Day landings’…

65th ANNIVERSARY

A CONTROVERSIAL PLAN

THE ALLIED LANDINGS in Normandy on 6 June 1944 were among the most desperate undertakings in the history of war. Amphibious operations against an enemy in a strong defensive position will almost always lead to heavy casualties. Simply looking at the history and trait of military operations, in whatever theatre of conflict men have fought, prior too, and after WWII, will clearly indicate the high risks involved when amphibious craft is used against a well embedded enemy.

In November 1943, for instance, the United States Marine Corps’ capture of the tiny atoll of Tarawa in the central Pacific had cost more than 3,000 casualties. American censors banned a public screening of the US Navy film of this event, arguing that its shocking images of a lagoon red with soldiers’ blood would undermine the morale of US forces and the Home Front.

The British and Canadians had suffered their own disaster, too, at Dieppe on 18 August 1942. More than two thirds of a 6,000-man raiding force had been left behind on the shingle beach, dead, wounded and prisoners.

 

ON THE EVE of D-Day the Allied leadership was in a state of fixated anxiety. Just after midnight on 6 June, a restless Winston Churchill, haunted by memories of the disastrous Allied landings at Gallipoli 29 years earlier, bade his wife goodnight with the words:

… Do you realise that by the time you wake up in the morning twenty thousand men may have been killed?

The same night, the chief of the imperial general staff, General Alan Brooke, confided to his journal and diary that:

… It may well be the most ghastly disaster of the whole war. I wish to God it were safely over.

At about 22.00 the supreme allied commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, had made an impromptu visit to paratroopers of the 101st Airborne at Greenham Common airfield near Newbury. His driver, Kay Summersby, recorded that the general, overwhelmed by emotion, climbed back into the car with his shoulders sagged.

Eisenhower had already written a letter accepting full responsibility if D-Day turned out to be a disaster. Churchill had assured him that they would go together. The Allied high command anticipated that a successful landing would cost 10,000 dead and perhaps 30,000 wounded, but were steeling themselves for much heavier casualties.

 

President Obama: ‘Cairo speech: addressing the Muslim world’…

RESPONSE: GUARDIAN ARTICLE & EDITORIAL

RESPONDING to Jonathan Freedland after an article entitled, “Barack Obama in Cairo: the speech no other president could make”, appeared on the website of the Guardian newspaper, dated 4 June 2009.

Mr. Freedland writes:

… The president did not unveil a new policy programme or Middle East peace plan. Instead, it will be the tone – even the vocabulary – he used that will have the greatest impact. For the thread that ran through every paragraph was a simple but radical idea: respect for the Arab and Muslim world.

… It was there in Obama’s use of the traditional Muslim greeting, met with cheering applause: assalamu alaykum. There, too, in his quotations from “the holy Qur’an” – pronouncing the word the way his Cairo audience would pronounce it. “I know civilisation’s debt to Islam,” he declared, before listing a Muslim record of achievement that stretched from algebra to poetry.

 

OPINION

From the desk of MD

I AGREE with Jonathan when he says the speech made by Barack Obama could not have been done by any other president. As an orator Mr. Obama stands head and shoulders above anyone we care to mention; his performance at the University in Cairo once again proves the brilliance by which he can deliver a powerful message. I once read that President Obama can say in a single sentence what most writers would say in a paragraph or two.

Mr. Obama’s rhetoric was long, though nothing new appeared by way of policies. What we did come to understand, though, is the Obama administration understanding the decade’s dilemma of the Palestinians: how their rights have been denied by continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian settlements. Such soundings have been greeted with a largely positive response from groups across the Middle East. President Obama’s speech could well be the breakthrough the United States has been seeking, declaring openly it was not, and never has been, at war with Islam. Even the hard-line Hamas, whilst expressing the differences it has with America, acknowledged that today’s speech represented a change in tone.

What was really impressive was that Mr. Obama’s speech carried a number of direct quotes from the Qur’an. On occasions, he had to break off from speaking to take in applause from the audience. Expressing that he himself was a Christian whose father had a strong Muslim background, Mr. Obama delivered a speech that was directed in seeking common ground between Islam, Christianity and Judaism. He also expressed the horrors of the Holocaust and the right of the Israeli’s to exist.

 

Related:

• Guardian Editorial, 5 June 2009: “Obama’s speech in Cairo: a bold vision”.

The Editor writes:

… Barack Obama had set the bar high: to deliver a speech which addressed America’s dysfunctional relationship not just with the Arab world but the Muslim one; a speech which encompassed not only contemporary conflicts but past ones; a speech which would not only restate common values but redefine them in terms of Islamic teaching and the Qur’an. He succeeded spectacularly in Cairo yesterday. Given the mine-strewn nature of the terrain on which he was venturing, Mr. Obama displayed a mastery of touch. And he achieved his aims without side-stepping key issues or keeping to the safety of rhetorical high ground.

 

IN RESPONSE…

When Mr. Obama arrived in the Middle East on Wednesday he was greeted by a new and threatening message from the Al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden. In an audio recording, the terrorist leader said that the president inflamed the Muslim world by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in the Swat valley and by blocking Islamic law there.

But, in his Cairo speech, President Obama was clearly able to rise above such provocation and said the actions of violent extremist Muslims are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings. He quoted the Qur’an to make his point saying that Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism but an important part of promoting peace.

 

The best in journalism and a voice for equitable public debate.

 

 

 

---

INDEPENDENT

RESPONDING to Robert Frisk of the Independent, 4 June 2009:

• Robert Fisk: Words that could heal wounds of centuries

Mr. Frisk writes:

Will his lecture to a carefully chosen audience at Cairo University “re-imagine the world” and heal the wounds of centuries between Muslims and Christians? Will it resolve the Arab-Israeli tragedy after more than 60 years? If words could do the job, perhaps…

 

IN RESPONSE…

Mr. Obama’s speech was masterful and well delivered. What he said, he meant. Whilst the president’s speech was void of any new policy initiatives, the world witnessed and heard America’s stance on Israel and Palestine where no previous US president has dared gone before. Mr. Obama didn’t come to Cairo to necessarily appease any one side; his rhetoric was direct indicating that Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian settlements was unacceptable. So to, he said, were the horrors and grave crimes of the Holocaust: Israel has a right to exist, and no-one should forget the slaughter of six million Jews during that difficult period in world history.

President Obama’s own background and upbringing has helped enormously in how he is attempting to find common ground between the Muslim world and the west. Whilst speaking of his own Christianity, he was also able to eloquently deliver verses from the Qur’an, bridging his father’s Muslim bloodline, and by speaking of how Abraham, Jesus and Muhammad would require peace on earth.

Islam, Mr. Obama said, is what has enlightened the world through the centuries. The renaissance allowed the sciences and arts, for instance, to spread through Europe. America was not at war with Islam, and never has been.

Cairo, Egypt: President Barack Obama delivered his message at Cairo University that aimed to find common ground with the Arab world. His speech was received well throughout many parts of the Muslim world.

When Barack Obama arrived in the Arab world, on Wednesday, Osama bin Laden had allegedly aired an audio recording: the terrorist leader said the president inflamed the Muslim world by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in the Swat Valley and by blocking Islamic law there. The president rose above such provocation insisting that the actions of violent extremist Muslims are “irreconcilable with the rights of human beings”, and quoted the Qur’an to make his point. “Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace,” he said.

President Barack Obama has called for a “new beginning between the US and Muslims” and said they could together confront violent extremism and work towards peace in the Middle East. Early in his speech he said that tension between the Arab world and the west had been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.

 

 

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

Kosovo: ‘Departure of ethnic minorities’…

GUARDIAN ARTICLE

RESPONDING to Ian Bancroft after an article written by Mr. Bancroft entitled, “The flight of Kosovo’s minorities”, appeared on the website of the Guardian newspaper dated 3 June 2009.

Mr. Bancroft writes:

… The EU insists that Kosovo is a tolerant and multi-ethnic society. So why are its minorities leaving?

 

KOSOVO

From the desk of MD

IT was in February of last year when Kosovo’s parliament voted for ‘independence’ from Serbia. A new constitution was forged a few months after. Those moves, though, remained very controversial, not only among the populations of Kosovo and Serbia, but also throughout the wider international community. Whilst it is accepted that some 40 countries or so recognised the declaration of independence, the United Nations has, so far, refused to endorse the mandate.

Against this backdrop the parliament in Kosovo pressed ahead with adopting laws setting out the framework of independence. The constitution came into force in June of 2008. Effectively, this transferred power to the majority-ethnic Albanian government after almost a decade of UN rule.

Of the 40-countries that support Kosovo’s mandate for independence is the United States and the bulk of countries within the European Union, including the UK, France, Italy and Germany. However, Serbia and Kosovo’s minority Serbs, supported by Russia and China, are vehemently against it. Serbia has always deemed the independence declaration as a “false state”. Russia will likely continue to block recognition when the UN Security Council sits, using its veto where necessary.

The EU would insist that Kosovo is tolerant and a multi-ethnic society. It deployed some 2,000 officials in strengthening law and order, including police officers, prosecutors and judges. It struggled initially because of repeated protests from Russia which heavily opposed UN withdrawal. United Nations acceptance remains a crucial factor in whether Kosovo will become a tolerant society in the future.

What is important to understand, too, is Kosovo’s two million population includes an estimated 120,000 ethnic Serbs, many of whom live in Serb-dominated areas north of the Ibar river, adjoining Serbia proper. Yet, half the population lives under NATO protection (K-FOR) in scattered enclaves south of the Ibar. The Serb minority were, previously, guaranteed places in local government and parliament, including special status for the Serbian Orthodox Church. Those pledges were opposed by Serb hardliners who vowed not to co-operate. A degree of partition has already become a fact of life in the Serb-dominated areas, with the Kosovo Serbs already having moved to set-up their own rival assembly in Mitrovica. That assembly has no real powers and is more of a challenge to the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina. It may, though, strengthen the parallel Serb institutions.

 

NATO forces stepped up their state of alert, especially within ethnically mixed areas of Kosovo. Minorities might well be leaving in avoiding their discontentment turning into organised violence, again. In 2004, for instance, NATO troops failed to quell ethnic Albanian riots targeting Serbs.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

 

Israel: ‘United States, Iran and international negotiation’…

GUARDIAN ARTICLE

RESPONDING to Jeremy Sharon after an article written by Mr. Sharon entitled, “What should Israel do about Iran?” appeared on the website of the Guardian newspaper, dated 3 June 2009.

Mr. Sharon writes:

… If the international community fails to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel may take matters into its own hands.

 

COMPROMISE NOT SEDITION

From the desk of MD

WE sense an attitude change by the United States in how it will approach the Middle East conflict under President Obama. Rather than continuing to seek Jewish support in America, which has been an all too frequent occurrence under former US presidents, Mr. Obama’s stance appears to be unorthodox in wishing to understand and by addressing Arab concerns. It has often been said that Israel is America’s only ally in a region that has witnessed war, conflict and tension for decades.

Israel’s dogmatic and inflexible stance on a number of vital areas has alienated itself from America’s continuing support. If Israel wishes to move forward from here-on-in it has to consider compromise and concession. One consideration is removing its threat to attack Iran, a country that is on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon or bomb. Israel, as the rest of the world, has a right to be concerned with states such as Iran and North Korea, rogue states that pose a significant threat to the stability of the world. However, how they are dealt with is not necessarily through air strikes: continuing economic and political sanctions as well as isolating such regimes from international talks is as effective as any air campaign could be. Strikes from the air generally incur the wrath of the international community, particularly so when nuclear bomb making factories are the targets for destruction. Nuclear drift, for example, the movement of radioactive materials can quickly move trans-border once such sites have been attacked. The costs of that would be far reaching.

In the past, whenever Israel has attacked Palestinian settlements, such as that in the Gaza Strip, Israel has always had the tacit support and blessing of the United States. For Israel to attack Iran, that would require an operation round-trip in excess of a thousand miles; Israel would bound to lose aircraft in the process as well as angering proxies Hezbollah and Hamas who would likely launch counter-offensives against the state of Israel. The risks of igniting a wider if not intractable war, if Israel did attack Iran, seem to outweigh totally what its objectives would be. Iran, as North Korea, requires to be brought to the negotiating table in discussing how best their needs can be met. Both could be afforded huge economic aid and help by simply abiding with international laws and by being less recalcitrant.

 

Related:

• Guardian (2 June 2009) — Simon Tisdall’s World Briefing: “Will Obama be Netanyahu’s downfall?”

… Barack Obama’s perceived tilt towards the Arab world has left Israel’s fragile coalition government reeling.

 

IN RESPONSE…

But, it may also amount to ‘unintended consequences’. Israel, for example, may feel so isolated and disillusioned it may end up striking Iran’s three bomb making factories, a strategy that would no-doubt agitate the United States. Israel perceives Iranian stockpiles of centrifuges and spent uranium fuel rods as a country being on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon. Israel has to be accommodated when Barack Obama addresses the Middle East conflict in Cairo on Thursday; it has a right to exist.

Seeking a two-state solution seems the obvious way forward. Yet, Israel’s seemingly intractable position on not wishing to negotiate on several contentious issues – the Golan Heights, Palestinian refugees, Palestinian access to the holy sites in Jerusalem and its unwillingness to speak with Hamas, for instance – will continue to frustrate, in all honesty, any attempt by Barack Obama to get the “road map” back on track. Israel has to find it within itself to sufficiently compromise if peace is ever to be brought to the Middle East.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com

 

The best in journalism and a platform for equitable public debate.

Public life: ‘The age of innocence’…

GUARDIAN ARTICLE

RESPONDING to David Cox after an article entitled, “The age of innocence” appeared on the website of the Guardian newspaper, dated 30 May 2009.

Mr. Cox writes:

… From MPs to the Oxford professor of poetry, misbehaving public figures are resigning while claiming they’ve done nothing wrong.

 

REPREHENSIBLE

From the desk of MD

THEY might well do but that does not disguise either the public disgust or hypocrisy of many MPs. Understanding where the dividing line is between ‘not doing anything wrong’ and ‘what is reprehensible’ is a clear question for public consciousness.

Yet, until publicly exposed no-one has ever dared come out to admit the excessiveness by which many public figures have claimed on the public purse. They have the brass-neck to pursue, for example, with insatiable delight those on welfare least able to look after themselves whilst screwing every penny and pound for menial items like bath-plugs and light bulbs.

And what has become so crass in recent days and weeks is the blatant hypocrisy of party leaders trying to rise above it all knowing probably full well the excesses, damn right lies if not fraudulent attempts by those entrusted to public service.

It really does stink.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com

 

The best in journalism: a platform for equitable public debate.

North Korea: ‘International condemnation as Pyongyang conducts nuclear tests’…

PYONGYANG 

From the desk of MD

NORTH KOREA, the isolated Stalinist state, earned the wrath and anger of its neighbours, yesterday, with its second atomic weapons test. Nuclear tensions throughout Asia were considerably raised believing that Pyongyang was playing a dangerous game and seriously undermining peace and stability in the region.

The test, and the provocative launch of a short-range missile afterwards, comes just two months after Kim Jong-Il abandoned six-party talks with South Korea, Russia, China, Japan and the United States aimed at convincing the impoverished state to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for substantial economic and food aid, as well as an end to the country’s pariah and rogue status.

Despite its neighbours being extremely anxious, North Korea’s nuclear programme is most likely to be rough and ready: the country certainly lacks the ability to miniaturise its nuclear materials into a condensed warhead.  

Kim Jong-Il who leads North Korea is believed to be ailing and facing a difficult succession contest, has long argued that it has no choice but to build an atomic arsenal to protect itself from a hostile world. Recent moves have all been unilateral, albeit controversial, and have come despite Washington adopting a softer tone.

Six weeks ago, the international community decided to tighter sanctions against North Korea following a rocket launch. Pyongyang insisted that launch was to put into orbit a communications satellite, but the United States and other western nations said it was a disguised long-range missile.

The official KCNA news agency announced that the country had:

… Successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on 25 May as part of the measures to bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defence.

The US Geological survey said it had detected a quake of 4.7 in an area close to where the test site is thought to be. This is equivalent to 20,000 Tons of TNT, similar to the bomb that exploded over Hiroshima.

China, North Korea’s only meaningful ally, is furious as it was wrong-footed, again, by the nuclear test, as it was in 2006. Beijing stopped short of censoring its neighbour after April’s “satellite launch”, but has issued a strongly worded statement following North Korea’s latest test.  

In a statement run on the Xinhua news agency, the Chinese government said:

… The DPRK ignored universal opposition of the international community and once more conducted the nuclear test. The Chinese government is resolutely opposed to it.

The Chinese are demanding that North Korea lives up to its commitment to a “nuclear-free Korean peninsula, stop any activity that may worsen the situation and return to the six-party talks”.

 

BEIJING might support a resolution criticising Pyongyang but it would seem unlikely in backing strong economic sanctions as part of any new UN Security Council resolution. As a permanent member of the Council, China has the right to exercise a veto on any such resolution.

Worryingly, Japan, whilst condemning the test as unacceptable and a violation of a previous UN Security Council  resolution (1718) is bracing itself for a possible arms race in Asia. Tokyo does not have nuclear weapons, but many analysts believe that North Korean aggression may lead to Japan seeking a start to its own nuclear programme.

It is believed that North Korea is pushing its nuclear weapons programme as it felt it did not get enough recognition from those talks. In a statement released by the director of International Studies at Tsinghua University, Yan Xuetong said:

… North Korea wanted a peace treaty with the United States, they want to formally end the current status of being in a state of war with the US and South Korea, they want to have a formal end of the war, but they cannot get that from the six-party talks. They cannot get anything they want from the six-party talks.

But, of real political concern, is the attempt by North Korea in trying to become a nuclear state by showing their ability to deliver a long-range missile, as well as a higher level of explosive power in the building of a nuclear bomb.

 

ANALYSIS

• WHAT IS NORTH KOREA’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS CAPABILITY?

North Korea is thought to have produced enough plutonium for up to eight weapons and has already produced one rudimentary nuclear device. It is unlikely to miniaturise a nuclear weapon to mount on a missile and would need a significant amount of testing to master the technology. And its Soviet-era bombers would not be able to evade the advanced air forces of the United States, Japan and South Korea to deliver a bomb, which means it may be many years before North Korea can actually threaten the world with a nuclear weapon.

• HOW BIG IS THE SECURITY THREAT?

The North’s nuclear arms programme is not a major security threat at present because it has not yet shown it can build an effective bomb, nor does it have an effective delivery system.

Results that show the explosive force of the current test should be known in the next few days, which will indicate if the country has improved its nuclear weapons technology. Its underground test on 25 May is though believed to have had the same powerful effect as the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.

The biggest security threats posed by the North come from its hundreds of mid-range missiles, which can hit all of South Korea and most of Japan, as well as its artillery batteries posted close to its border with the South. Jane’s Defence estimated the North could rain 500,000 shells an hour into the Seoul area, which is home to about half of South Korea’s 49 million people.

A North Korean first strike with artillery and rockets, which may also carry biological weapons or material to spread radiation poisoning, would cause major damage to economic powers South Korea and Japan, which in turn would deal a heavy blow to the global economy. It would also be a suicidal move, because the U.S.-led counter-strike would quickly destroy North Korea.

• WHAT ARE NORTH KOREA’S NUCLEAR FACILITIES?

The heart of the North’s nuclear arms programme is the Yongbyon nuclear plant, located about 100 km (60 miles) north of the capital Pyongyang. Its key facilities are a plant that makes nuclear fuel, an antiquated reactor that burns the fuel and a plant that separates plutonium from spent fuel. It has various clandestine facilities where it works on weapons designs and uranium enrichment, intelligence sources said.

• WILL DIPLOMACY WORK TO END THE NORTH’S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME?

North Korea for years has used its military threat to squeeze concessions from global powers and experts doubt it will give up its biggest card while leader Kim Jong-il is in charge. For Kim, only nuclear weapons can give his small state real standing in the world. They also underpin his military-first policy in the face of what Pyongyang says is the threat of a U.S. invasion.

• HOW BIG OF A THREAT IS PROLIFERATION?

The proliferation threat is real. The United States, under former President George W. Bush, suspected the North aided Syria in developing a nuclear programme.

Even though the North’s nuclear arms programme is based on what experts consider outdated technology, cash-strapped North Korea has mastered the nuclear fuel cycle and could sell its nuclear expertise to states aiming to make plutonium for weapons.

 

GUARDIAN ARTICLE

RESPONDING to Martin Butcher after an article entitled, “A path to peace with North Korea” appeared on the website of the Guardian Newspaper, dated 26 May 2009.

Mr. Butcher writes:

… Despite its nuclear test, Obama must reject the isolation of Pyongyang to achieve security on the Korean peninsula.

… International reaction to the DPRK’s test has been harsh. President Obama said the test threatens world peace. Russia said the UN Security Council will meet. Tibor Toth, head of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation, said the test deserved “universal condemnation”. Some degree of condemnation of the DPRK’s action is unavoidable and necessary. But the international community needs to understand the DPRK is trying to focus attention on their situation, and move quickly to resolve it.

 

MD RESPONSE

NORTH KOREA’S underground firing of a long-range missile potentially sets in motion a wider arms race throughout Asia, despite the difficult and timely progress the United States had made with others around the world in reducing nuclear arsenals. Japan, for example, doesn’t have a nuclear programme but is likely to start think of acquiring one after North Korea’s aggressive stance.

What is concerning, too, is the riposte of countries such as Iran, who are believed to be on the verge of building a nuclear missile.

Crucial now is for North Korea to be brought back into six-party talks because North Korea left to its own devices might result in Pyongyang selling nuclear materials to non-stage third-party actors such as terrorists. External belligerence can only lead to other inevitable consequences such as naval skirmishes on the Korean peninsula.

China, whilst holding the right to exercise a veto at the UN Security Council in formulating a new resolution over and above 1718, or by imposing additional economic sanctions against Kim-Jong Il, must now show good leadership and diplomacy by reengaging with North Korea.

 

Related:

• Guardian Editorial (25 May 2009), “North Korea: radioactive diplomacy”

 

Appendage:

… (Selected) Comments received via e-mail:

- Details of the sender(s) have been withheld in complying with the Data Protection Act.

1.

… I hear Warmonger-in-Chief Barack Obama fears that N Korea poses a “serious threat to international peace and security” which is a teeny weeny bit hypocritical from the president of a country that has forced regime change onto 70 different countries since WW2 and is currently having no problem threatening Iran.

The hypocricy also knows no bounds regarding Israel, a country that has broken more International Laws than all others put together, which also has a vast nuclear arsenal and is currently occupying a Sovereign State while also threatening Iran.

Now we all know about the phantom WMD’s that enabled the Corperate Armies to enter Iraq. The Warmongers were lying then but they are telling the truth now?

 

2.

… North Korea legally withdrew from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), which, by the terms of this treaty, was within their rights.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com

 

The best in journalism

Pakistan: ‘The Government seems determined to root-out the Taliban’…

GUARDIAN ARTICLE

RESPONDING to Peter Preston after an article entitled, “Reasons to be hopeful”, appeared on the website of the Guardian Newspaper, and dated 24 May 2009.

Mr. Preston writes:

… After years of failure, Pakistan’s leaders are starting to expose the Taliban for what they are.

… Does this mean that Afghanistan, just over a porous border, can be hopeful too? Not really – the differences are profound. Nor can Pakistan’s fractious politicians or uncertain generals be much congratulated yet. They’ve wasted years not confronting the enemy within. But they’re doing it now, to some effect. They are exposing the Taliban threat for what it is – and making their nation no longer part of the problem, but part of a possible solution.

 

HOPEFUL BUT MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE

From the desk of MD

“Reasons to be hopeful” is a very apt title to this well written article.

The willingness of the Pakistani Government and Army in rooting out the Taliban in the Swat Valley has, though, caused mass displacement with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing into Buner, slightly to the south. Many others, seeking to escape, are still trapped amid the fighting.

But with Pakistan having been under considerable US pressure to act, Pakistan at long last is seen to be acting in accordance with the demands being placed on it. Such efforts should be applauded because it could very well break the logistical chain the Taliban has in North West Pakistan with Afghanistan. The link between the Pashtun region and Afghanistan is inextricably linked: the movement of men, weapons and money in fuelling the insurgency is largely accepted as being coordinated from within the Swat valley, a notorious region of Taliban hideouts, caves and dens.

The Pakistan Government requires tackling, too, the endemic corruption and infiltration of Taliban supporters and sympathises within the state’s intelligence service, the SIS. A significant part of the problem has been those loyal to the Taliban cause and employed within state intelligence tipping-off Taliban warlords prior to US and coalition airstrikes, leaving innocents to take the full brunt as warlords and their cohorts escape targeted areas.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com

 

The best in journalism

Sunday Teaching & Lesson: ‘Real lives and frank concessions’…

Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. [1 Samuel 15: 22]

THE BOOK OF 1 SAMUEL

Teaching from Scotland

THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL (originally a single document) bring today’s reader into familiar territory. They are stories about people, and enable us to see them as flesh and blood, fallible and real, as well as to reflect on their actions.

We join the narrative at the end of the judges’ period. The story of decline, oppression, rescue and recovery continues. Samuel, the last of the judges and a prophet, pilot’s Israel’s tribal confederacy into calmer waters. In his old age, the elders ask him to appoint a king.

This is a watershed event in the Bible. Samuel, after much soul-searching, appoints Saul. But as the prophet warned, Saul abuses his power, becomes mentally unstable, and falls from grace. David is secretly anointed as heir apparent.

Saul becomes paranoid (and envious) of the young-giant killer and David spends the next decade an outlaw on the run, becoming a role model for future Robin Hoods. Eventually, when Saul dies, David is accepted as king.

Teachings for Sunday, 24 May 2009, are given from the Old Testament Book of 1 Samuel.

Later to be hailed as the model for the Messiah, David nonetheless has feet of clay. Apart from his celebrated affair with Bathsheba and contract killing of her husband, he has a shambolic home life and for a while is forced into exile by his rebellious son Absalom.

But for all that, he loves God, and gives the nation a solid foundation on which his son Solomon built a never-to-be-repeated ‘golden age’ of prosperity and peace (which is recounted in 1 Kings).

It is an absorbing story, written as a prophetic overview of a formative part of Israel’s development. Behind the exposed lives we see a righteous God who remains reliable and who continues to be his people’s rescuer.

 

GOD DETRONED AS SAUL IS CROWNED

THERE IS A FORM of Christian spirituality which suggests that God has one plan or purpose for each individual. If we fail to find it or to follow it, then we can never be within God’s will and thus never receive his full blessing. 1 Samuel 8-10 suggests that reality is more complex.

God intended Israel to be exemplary in its social organisation as well as in its spiritual orientation. It was a theocracy, a unique nation with God as its King and no distinction between church and state. The people’s request for a leader who combined the roles of chief executive, Lord Chief Justice and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces was natural but wrong. It implied that they considered God’s guidance and jurisdiction through the priests insufficient.

Having made the decision, they were not ejected from God’s plans. Samuel is told to give them what they asked. God accommodates himself to their faithless request, after a due warning about the human consequences. He even leads Samuel carefully to Saul. God did not want a king, but he chose one for them.

It is a classic example of his grace. God is not inflexible. He works with human situations in order to achieve his unchanging purposes; he does not impose a rigid scheme. That does not excuse us for taking wrong or unwise courses of action. It does reassure us that having made such decisions in the past we are not excluded from God’s activity in the present.

 

The Lord taught us to pray together, saying:

THE LORD’S PRAYER

OUR Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy Name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

 

Amen.

[St Matthew 6:9-13]

 

The writer was formerly commissioned as a Boys Brigade Officer by the Reverend Robert Lynn, St. Leonard’s Parish Church, Ayr.

The Boys Brigade is a commissioned body and authority whose aim is to “advance the Kingdom of Christ”.

The Boys’ Brigade was founded in Glasgow on 4th October 1883 by Sir William Alexander Smith.

Military Art/Book Review: ‘The burning moment’ & ‘Somme Mud’…

Artist: Chris Collingwood -- 'The burning moment': The 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers going ‘over the top’ on July 1st 1916.

 

'Somme Mud' is an account taken from the diary and journals penned by Private Lynch after returning as an Australian Infantryman in the Great War. Deeply moving in parts, Lynch's testimony is a sad reminder of the enormous human sacrifice, 90 years ago. Book review undernote.

 

BOOK REVIEW

MORE THAN NINETY YEARS after the Battle of the Somme (ended 18 November 1916) the pain and pointlessness of the human slaughter still echo.

Some military historians still reckon that at least 20,000 Australian soldiers of the Great War (1914-18) are still “missing”, a euphemism for the fact that their bodies either sank in the mud, withered under the strong heat and intensity of the sun or were simply blown to smithereens, without any identification.

Somme Mud, a living testimony of an Australian Infantryman, Private Edward Lynch, seeks to understand how that barbarity happened. The book is an extraordinary memoir of the trenches of the Western Front.

Edward Lynch left Australia on 22nd August 1916 as a young man of 18 volunteering to serve on the Western Front. He returned to his homeland in 1919, lived through three of the most turbulent years of modern history.

For even those people who may have previous military experience, I suspect the way that the narrative is written will take a bit of getting used to; it does take a little time before the general theme of the book settles down. This is perhaps due to the fact that it wasn’t written or edited by a professional story teller – the original text was penned by Lynch, on returning from the Great War, where he fought with extreme bravery and courage on the front line and acted frequently as a ‘runner’ for his Commanding Officer.

On his return to Australia in 1919, he wrote it all down in a number of school type exercise books as a method of making sense and coming to terms with the enormity of the experience he had suffered. Lynch served in the Great War from late 1916 to the end of the conflict; his entries reflect that period.

The initial idea was to publish the story, but due to circumstances at the time this never happened. After his death the volumes resurfaced when Edward’s grandson Mike Lynch passed the volumes to the editor Will Davies.

Essentially, though, the book presented is written as a diary and describes the daily life of a soldier on the front line. Once the story gets moving, the events that unfurl are described in such graphic and brilliantly described detail, that one is easily taken to the horrors of war and environs to which the writer wishes to take his reader.

Edward Lynch gets wounded a couple of times mainly through shrapnel, describes in clear and unambiguous language the deaths of others around him, and writes not only of the horrors and tragedy of an unforgiving war, but also on the fine detail of the hand-to-hand trench bayonette fighting which led to numerous and tragic losses on both sides.

Private Lynch’s testimonies surpasses those WWI books that seek only to analyse the battles; Lynch had the foresight to write down what he and others actually experienced: a duty perhaps for all of us to read in not forgetting the respect that such soldiers are owed.

Whilst full of harrowing if not frightening moments, the message conveys the real sense of comradeship and frequently described dark humour of those serving under conditions none of us can ever know today. Striking, is the constant prospect of being sniped, shelled, gassed, or just drowned in flooded shell holes. The most chilling description outside the numerous incidents of shellfire is the vivid images of the Somme battlefield in the freezing winter of 1916-17. Casualties lie still and frozen, reflective postures of brutal trench combat.

 

FRITZ is the term that Edward Lynch uses as the official enemy; the French mud, however, is a far more malevolent character. Edward wrote:

… We live in a world of Somme Mud.

… We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and many of us die in it. We see it, feel it, eat it and curse it, but we can’t escape it, not even by dying.

To read Somme Mud is a gut-churning battle and journey. The opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan pales into insignificance when reading through the vernacular provided by Lynch: offering a prayer of thanks when finally reaching the final chapter would, in my view, be apt. As men fight and die in their millions just to win a few square miles of this mud, Lynch emancipates his true to account feelings in describing a world in which feet rot in sodden boots, where there are chronic infestations of body lice and weariness so great that it even becomes possible to fall asleep in heavy snow. It is a place where, “dead men and dead horses lie in all manner of grotesque, mud-encased attitudes”.

 

AS the 45^th Battalion AIF moves ever closer to German lines, suicidal charging of enemy trenches is a common theme that is ordered again and again. Soldiers are cold, the bodies of dead Germans are used to build parapets upon which riflemen snipe at their enemy, and there’s an ever present operating theatre with a bucket of arms and legs.

The acrid, throat-scorching shell fumes; feeling the agony of burning shrapnel on human flesh; and, the ecstasy of desperately needing a mug of rum in the face of death, are regular daily occurrences to which Edward Lynch sketches.

Yet, just as William Golding’s Lord of the Flies epitomises how various groups can form in society, Somme Mud is an unequivocal study of mans brutal inhumanity to man. It is also a tortured and astonishing tale of what one man will do for another in the heat of battle.

 

WAIT on whilst the dead men are buried. A shallow frequent grave often marked by a rifle stuck up in the mud is all that can be done. It gives some satisfaction to do that, although it is too frequently acknowledged that men so buried will be thrown up and reburied by shellfire time after time until the fighting shifts on from here. Some day they may have real graves and committed to their maker in a more acceptable manner.

Technically, the book is very accurate. The story can be followed on maps, trench maps and panoramas, giving a much wider understanding of small actions that took place during this dark period. Somme Mud doesn’t draw any conclusions as to the rights and wrongs of the conflict, it praises and castigates Officers, men and the enemy as the situation demands.

The descriptions of actions are well placed, making the account and book highly authentic. The firing of the mines on the Messines Ridge, the forward advance by tanks and the start of the air re-supply are interspersed with the inevitabilities of war – food contaminated with gas, Janker’s for going AWOL and the cleaning of artillery trace chain harnesses.

… We spent a whole day cleaning trace chains and polishing each link with spit sand and blasphemy.

 

SOMME MUD is a singular and powerfully written memoir that spans the period 1914-1918. Edward Lynch (who later became Major Lynch) deserves a place amongst the revered author’s and writers of the Great War.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com

 

United States: ‘US military spending and government strategy’…

GUARDIAN ARTICLE

RESPONDING to Professor Jeffrey Sachs after an article entitled, “Obama’s military conundrum” appeared on the website of the Guardian Newspaper, dated 22 May 2009.

Professor Sachs writes:

… Only by switching spending from war to development can America hope to defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban.

… The first rule in assessing a government’s real strategy is to follow the money. America vastly overspends on the military compared with other areas of government. Obama’s projected budgets do not change that. For the coming 2010 fiscal year, Obama’s budget calls for $755bn in military spending, an amount that exceeds US budget spending in all other areas except so-called “mandatory” spending on social security, healthcare, interest payments on the national debt and a few other items.

… Indeed, US military spending exceeds the sum of federal budgetary outlays for education, agriculture, climate change, environmental protection, ocean protection, energy systems, homeland security, low-income housing, national parks and national land management, the judicial system, international development, diplomatic operations, highways, public transport, veterans’ affairs, space exploration and science, civilian research and development, civil engineering for waterways, dams, bridges, sewerage and waste treatment, community development and many other areas.

… The worries are even worse in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nato’s war with the Taliban in Afghanistan is going badly, so much so that the commanding US ­general was sacked this month. The Taliban is also extending its reach into Pakistan.

 

POLITICAL SOLUTION?

From the desk of MD

THE PROBLEM, too, with the current Afghanistan campaign, and of that in Iraq, was that funding for both operations has been post balance-sheet. The effects of this, whilst not yet felt even given the extreme market volatility of late, will come to hit the US taxpayer at some stage in the future. Vast sums of money were borrowed in keeping a war going that, as of last year had already accrued well over one trillion dollars. Yet, that is just for creating the so-called basis by which a political settlement might have been made. However, as far as Afghanistan is concerned, that belief has been reciprocated, and to its own detriment; the more western money and arms that are pushed into the country in fighting the insurgency, the stronger the resolve the resistance has become: hardly then the basis by which a political settlement will come about.

Before project and development plans can become (fully) effective in such war torn places, the political will and agreement must be present among all parties and factions as part of any conflict resolution. Wherever we look around the world where conflict has previously existed, such as in Northern Ireland or within Bosnia Herzegovina (the former Yugoslavia), that tenet has required coming to the fore before any political or economic progress could have been made.

 

WHILST NATO is finding it incredibly difficult in switching to new ways of working from its traditional methods of working, General David McKiernan, the former US general in Afghanistan, is generally accepted as being replaced because of his lack of expertise within counter-insurgency. Lieutenant General McChrystal, his replacement, has had a successful career within US Special Forces.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com