Persiflage & Paroxysm

What will the Russians do next now that they have thrown down the economic gauntlet and the dispute over the annexation of Crimea has evolved into a showdown between the Russian will and the world economic system? “(T.E. Lawrence just extinguished a match between his thumb and forefinger. William Potter surreptitiously attempts the same) William Potter: Ooh! It damn well 'urts! T.E. Lawrence: Certainly it hurts. Officer: What's the trick then? T.E. Lawrence: The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.” From the movie Lawrence of Arabia Russia it seems is on a similar course, a painful one, and the trick is not minding that it hurts. From a nation that once broke the German war machine’s back on the anvil of Stalingrad I expect much. My hopes and prayers are with them, although I fear the worst. We still live in a uni-polar world as far as the economy is concerned. Some would argue that we didn’t get to where we are now in terms of the free flow...

Unfortunately, Russia is wrong, we are still a uni-polar world, sad but true. In order to change that we must destroy the old and build the new, starting with the world banking system. Yes, you heard correctly. The US controlled banking system defines our world, it controls the movement of money and the maneuverability of national economies, it's what makes Western imposed sanctions so effective and it's what makes Russian imposed sanctions farcical and ineffective. I am personally all for destroying the global banking system, it's corrupt and elitist and bankers (bank owners) clearly have more power than governments and are effectively above the law, so maybe the whole system should go. Actually, its not as easy as all that. What I am proposing here is actually getting rid of the drug pushers of our consumer culture. We are addicted to overspending, to buying arguably useful but unnecessary stuff and working the whole of our lives to pay back the...

I can't imagine Lebanon without a resistance, at least not until a new social contract is drawn up and agreed on by all parties and until a satisfactory resolution is reached to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which would include a return of all refugees to the whole of historical Palestine. There are arguments that question the utility of the resistance after the year 2000 and the liberation of most of the occupied Lebanese territories. What these arguments fail to factor in, however, is the constant threat that an expansionary and unrestrained Israel poses in the long term. Resistance is a right of all the Lebanese as Hussein Al Husseini said. It is our right as it was the right of the then newly formed independent State of Finland in the 1930s and 40s to fight the Russians who wanted to revoke its independence. In that endeavour, Finland aligned itself with the Third Reich and Finnish Jews fought along side German soldiers against the Russians. No mere statement from this ...

To all those who make the horrendously inaccurate assumption that Europe is a notch above on the civilization scale, I say this: you have fallen for the oldest trick in the colonialists' book. First rule of conquering other peoples who outnumber you is nurture in them a healthy fear of your innate superiority and latent strengths so much so that they convince themselves they will never be able to defeat you. That very European maxim holds true today in every sphere of life, in war and in commerce, and it remains as effective as ever apparently. To those sniggering patronizingly at my naïve belief that colonial imperialism is still alive and well, when they know and are sure that it is long dead, let me say this: you have fallen for the second oldest trick in the colonialists' book. Make a colonized people feel they are gaining some measure of independence, that they now have control over their destiny, let them enjoy the show of throwing you out the front door and make...

I’ve never been to Russia; all I know about Russia is what comes to me through the media in English filtered as it would have to be through the opaque lens of a deep rooted Western bias, a xenophobic dislike (or call it distrust) of Slavic peoples, and a right-wing viewpoint that brands Putin a new Stalin (according to Zbigniew Brzezinski , comparisons with Hitler seem warranted) and the Russian Federation a reincarnation of the old USSR. I have a sneaking suspicion that Russia is so much more and Putin I suspect is smarter and more disciplined and astute than all his Western counterparts put together, certainly more so than the Western media make him out to be. I fear I shall never know Russia as I would dearly love to before I master its language that makes its speaker resound with the dulcet tones of authority and majesty that its truly glorious and remarkable history has imbued it with. Russia has done a remarkable thing, it has unmasked the US and its NATO allies as lit...