Archive for April 2009
More Copper Reserves for China
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 30, 2009
More Copper Reserves for China (April 30, 2009)
The price of copper was forecasted to fall 20% this year in this economic recession but it increased 50% instead: China is willing to pay around $5,000 the ton of copper instead of buying more US Treasury Bonds. China has purchased 375,000 tons of copper in March and increasing each month. The Chinese Central Bank governor Xiaochuan view the US financial famine to a black hole since the US is about to print more dollars to paying the Chinese State, thus practically devaluing the US currency and reselling the Chinese more hot air. The Chinese are not about to re-value the Yuan before the US and the European Union restore credibility and confidence in the financial system.
Among the many industrial usage of copper is the manufacture of hybrid engines in cars that China is putting in its market. Italy has been promoting hybrid cars for a while and many more gas stations are filling methane gas. Methane does not emit carbon dioxide. The driver would start and accelerate on regular gas and then shift into methane combustion. As a matter of fact, the Green Peace advocates regards the European Union policy of selling carbon dioxides permits to the heavier polluters is not reducing the CO2 in the atmosphere. For example, Germany has reduced its polluting energy consumption by 15% by relying on Aeolians, solar panels, and biomass; thus, Germany would sell 15% reduction in pollution to Poland and Slovenia that are still relying on coal.
I read in a post the following information: 62% of the World’s copper is used for the production of small denomination coins such as the penny. 84% of small denomination coins are classed by the World’s Governments as missing – it is presumed that members of the public have stashed the coins as savings. On average, each person in the World has stashed $22.34 worth of copper in small denomination coins.
Goldman Sachs predicts that the GNP of China will surpass Japan by 2010 and the USA before 2030. India will surpass Japan by 2030 and become third after the USA. Brazil will be fifth after Japan in 2030.
China is using its two trillion dollars surplus to accumulating reserves in aluminum, zinc, nickel, titanium, indium and rhodium so that it may resume its industrial acceleration once the current crisis is stabilized. This policy of purchasing minerals instead of US Treasury Bonds is compatible with China recommendation of creating an international banknote indexed on the prices of a basket of raw materials as was proposed by John Maynard Keynes at Bretton Woods in 1944; the “bancor” of Keynes was based then on 30 raw materials.
I suggest in a previous post “The Third World War is Tolling” the folowing:
“First, the developed States have to agree on another tangible standard (like gold) for currencies. Gold would not do because the US has abolished it in 1967 because all the gold in the world could not sustain the huge amount of paper dollars circulating or intended to circulate around the world. The alternative is a basket of depleting minerals that are essentials for manufacturing and production. The processed minerals do not have to be rare but very essentials for development. The US can agree to this idea since it has huge reserves in many important minerals.
Second, all the States that can account for at least 3% of all curency circulation should join an “International Money Printing Council” with tight control and monitoring creteria. Any combined States with over 40% of cash money shares in the global market should have a veto power.
Failing a convincing and sustainable agreement for monetary stability the Third World War is altready in the planning stage as the easiest and quickest way out of that morass. Only in major wars do printed money with no tangible backing has mythical values. No, the next region for the war scene is not Iran: no European or US soldiers want to fight in this “cursed region”. It won’t be Afghanistan: if Afghanistan was worth it then Bush Junior would not have invaded Iraq before stabilizing Afghanistan. It won’t be North Korea: it is bordering China. The batlefield will not be in any area bordering Russia. It won’t be the Congo River zone: no Western soldiers is about to step in this infested and contagious disease plagued region with AIDS consuming 30% of the population. The next world war is in Sudan, this continent/State rich in oil and all kinds of minerals”.
Actually, Sudan is the focus of investment for China in the last two decades.
Minorities in the Process of Disappearing: Iraq Case (April 29, 2009)
Germany has selected over 2,500 minority refugees of Iraq from the concentration camps in Jordan and Syria to be given political asylum. These selected refugees are mostly minority Christians and some Kurds of the Yazidy denomination. The first batch is of 120 refugees. The first phase is the transit camp of Friedland, close to Gottingen, where the refugees undergo medical examination, learn the German Language, and dwell in austere furnished rooms, well heated with showers and toilet along the corridors. There is nothing to do within the transit camps and the best meeting period is at meal time. The next phase is assigning the refugees to districts and temporary residences until they find jobs. A refugee may apply to his preferred location but it up to the German government to assign him.
Beside formal refugees there are many adolescents (less than 18 of age) not accompanied by adults (about 5,000) who were whisked away by their parents outside Iraq, Afghanistan, and Eritrea “for better life opportunities”. These non accompanied adolescents land in one of eight camps reserved for minors. They are aided to depositing asylum applications, learning the German Language, and offered medical assistance. Half the minor refugees obtain residency permit and the other half are tolerated to stay 6 months and renewable. Then they are directed to youth foyers. At the age of 18 the adolescents can rejoin families who accept them in their homes.
There are over a dozen minorities of ethnic and religious sects in Iraq. The Christian minority sects were expulsed from the Byzantium Empire after the conclave of Necee (in current coastal Turkey) in 325 on grounds of “heresies”. Emperor Constantine had supposedly converted to Christianity in an empire that was “pagan” prevalently. Many of these Christian sects seek refuge on inaccessible mountains in Mount Lebanon and in regions outside the Byzantium Empire such as in Armenia, Iraq, and Iran. These sects managed to survive for two thousand years; the first 600 years they survived because the successive Persian Empires were lenient with religious beliefs; when Islam conquered Persia and the major part of the Byzantium Empire in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and the eastern part of Turkey starting in the year of 640 these sects enjoyed the formal recognition and protection in verses of the Koran. The Prophet Muhammad named the Christian, Jewish, and Yazidy sects are believers in the One and Unique God Allah. The other main factor for their survival was avoiding daily mingling with the Moslems and deciding to be secluded in isolated communities: They had their particular traditions and religious laws and they preferred to keep low profiles.
Many of these sects have their own verbal and written languages and have their literature. For example, the Sabi2a sect writes in “mandaic”, a language mingling Aramaic and ancient Sumerian. The Sabe2a (baptismal) revere John the Baptist and had communities by the Tigre River south of current Baghdad and wore white robes and had Spartans daily customs of avoiding meat and fire for cooking. They were around 30,000 and are now reduced to around 6,000. Among these minorities we have the Assyro-Chaldean sect and the Kurdish Yazidy sect who are remnants of the Zoroaster religion.
The regime of Saddam Hussein protected and even favored many of the Christian sects. As the US invaded Iraq, al hell broke loose; the extremist Sunni Moslems (Arabs and Kurds) waged campaigns of terrorism and extermination against these minorities. Finally, Sweden permitted many minorities who mainly fled to Syria to apply for asylum.
List of Posts from April 26 to 28
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 29, 2009
306. Turkey and Iran: Same and Different (April 26, 2009)
307. Siege Attitudes: Sample of Lebanon Civil War Account (April 27, 2009)
308. Modern Day Crusaders: The Ashkenazi Spearhead (April 27, 2009)
309. “Ain Wardet” (Village) by Jabbour Douweihy (Book Review, April 27, 2009)
310. Love: Women in Islam (Part 9, April 27, 2009)
311. China and India Empires: Same and Different (April 28, 2009)
Lebanon and Palestine: Same and Different
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 29, 2009
Lebanon and Palestine: Same and Different (April 28, 2009, Part 1)
Brief ancient history:
Lebanon is a recognized State by the UN, in 1946 (2 years before Israel). Palestine was partitioned in 1947 between Palestinians and the minority Jews. Currently, all of Palestine is under occupation by this Zionist State called Israel.
Lebanon and Palestine were throughout antiquity under the domination of neighboring Empires such as in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq (Mesopotamia). The people in the two tiny stretches of coastal lands on the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea were mainly mariners, traders, middlemen among Empires, and skilled artisans.
Under the nominal or explicit domination of Empires, Lebanon and Palestine had autonomous administration of their society as City-States that were highly democratic within the city limits as Athens emulated in the 7th century BC.
The famous City-States from north to south are Ugarite, Tripoli, Jubail (Byblos), Saida, Sour (Tyr), Akka (Acre and Haifa), and Askelan.
The City-State of Jubeil (inventors of the alphabet) built Saida; Saida built Sour and dominated the sea routes; and Sour built Akka and relayed Saida in sea domination and expanding the trading posts to Spain. These City-States were the masters of the sea and traded with all Empires and build trading towns; they have resisted many overwhelming sieges, sometimes for years, and occasionally managed not to be entered and devastated.
Every empire that conquered Syria resumed its drive by dominating Lebanon and Palestine. In general, when more than one empire co-existed at the same period and when the empire in Egypt was powerful enough then it governed the southern half of Palestine while the other empire governed the upper half, including Lebanon. The strip of Gaza to Yafa was mostly under Egyptian cultural influence.
The coastal strip from north actual Syria to the Sinai was called Canaan. Then, the upper stretch to Akka was called Phoenicia or even Saida (in reference for the main City-State). The Sea People, called Philistines and probably coming from the Adriatic Sea, destroyed Greece fleet, devastated many coastal cities, and conquered Egypt before they were driven out and settle in Gaza and the southern part of Canaan, called Palestine ever since.
Moses (this mythical story) arrived with an amalgam of nomadic tribes and his successors attempted to occupy part of south Palestine. These tribes worshiped Yahwa, thus, yahoud and Jews for the Latin people. These tribes under Moses reverted to worshiping the all encompassing God of the Land called El., except a few tribes such as Judea and Benjamin. During the Roman Empire, Tyr administered the upper half of Palestine.
Modern History:
In the beginning of the 20th century, the military in Turkey deposed the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and started policies focused on Turk Nationhood. Many in Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine immigrated to Egypt.
During the First World War famine fell on Lebanon along with a devastating wave of locust; they immigrated to the USA, Brazil, Latin America, and many were dropped in Africa by unethical ship captains. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, Britain had mandate over Palestine and Iraq; France had mandate over Lebanon and Syria.
Consequently, the bilingual Palestinians spoke English, and their counterpart in Lebanon spoke French. In 1930, Haifa grabbed the center of trades and many Lebanese flocked to Haifa and Palestine. The reverse wave occurred when the State of Israel was recognized by a majority of one vote at the UN in 1948. Lebanon received Palestinian refugees who were installed in camps on the ground that their stay is temporary!
In one chapter of “World Adrift” Amine Maaluf said “The western powers are now paying the price for failing to apply their values in the colonies” The European colonial powers of Britain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands had no intentions of spreading their moral values to those they considered not worthy of their pearls and gems.
The indigents were to be enslaved, exploited, and humiliated; the indigents who adopted the western values of equality, liberty, and democracy were persecuted and harassed and imprisoned; the colonial administrators negotiated with the conservative conformists who were ready to strike deals and cohabit with lesser human rights. Dictators in Europe are abhorred but readily accepted in under-developed States.
Human values had different quality and flavors according to the whims and interest of the exploiting colonial powers. Britain used astute diplomatic policies to subjugate their colonies more frequently than France did; France of the French Revolution had no patience negotiating and communicating with their colonial people and never skipped an occasion to stating its true purpose for domination.and exhibiting arrogant military posturing.
The colonial powers installed infrastructures that were appropriate for exploitation of the colonies; they established the required administrations for smooth and efficient exploitation. The other administrative offices for legislation and justices were carbon copies of the ones in their homeland but these codes could be disposed off and trampled at the first occasion that short sighted interest called for swift and immediate actions.
Contemporary history:
Current Lebanon was created by France during its mandate period and cut out from Syria; it is now a recognized State by the UN since 1943. Palestine was divided but the Zionist movement conquered the allocated portion for the Palestinians by the UN in 1948.
The Palestinians are now located in the West Bank of the Jordan River and in Gaza where Israel has built 150 Jewish-only colonies and increasing every year.
The Palestinians who fled their towns and villages in the State of Israel are refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The UN resolution 193 demands the repatriation of these Palestinians to their hometowns but Israel has been rebuffing that resolution since 1948.
Lebanon suffered many civil wars and calamities for not being capable or unwilling of absorbing the Palestinian refugees; Israel has waged four devastating wars against the State of Lebanon on flimsy pretexts based on the Palestinian resistance trying to regain their rights for a homeland.
“Instantaneous Expediencies”
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 29, 2009
“Instantaneous Expediencies” (April 29, 2009)
We are experiencing a form of policies in the developed nations that is emulating the urges of its citizens for Instantaneous Expediencies related to desires, wishes, demands, acquisition, communication, gathering of intelligence, information, orders, and delivery around the world.
Our current development is characterized by accelerated paces in sciences, technologies, and communication, and delivery of our wishes either through the net, the phone, or airplanes within days if not seconds.
If we understand that human history progressed in major three phases of change and dissemination of intelligence of the changes in science, technologies, social and political organization, traditions, and cultures then we might grasp our current problems and how to find common denominators for resolutions.
There was a time when dissemination of information among the tribes was very slow and the changes taking place among tribes were even slower so that the world was at peace of rivalries and greed.
The next phase of settled communities in urban and agricultural regions experienced accelerated changes in many ways of progress but the dissemination of this intelligence was very slow and the identities of each region developed through traditions, customs, and myths.
By the 16th century and as the Portuguese and Spanish circumnavigated the oceans and discovered many maritime routes for trade and exploitation and met with various ethic groups then the third phase of human development occurred.
This third phase was characterized by the dissemination of ideas, sciences, and know-how progressed at a higher pace than the actual social and political changes in the European nations and thus, the world communities exhibited some kind of generalized uniformity in dwelling designs and forms of political and social organizations and structure.
The world is faced with a bunch of catastrophic problems from financial and economical difficulties, to environmental disasters that will not spare the next generation, to the emergence of potential superpowers with larger middle classes that can afford and demand all the consumer goods that the west has enjoyed for over a century, and to extremism in religions and nationalism to name just a few.
All these cataclysmic problems require global resolutions but solutions and decisions are done on national basis as Amine Maluf stated in “A World Adrift“
After the disintegration of the communist Soviet Union in 1989, Europe and particularly the US realized that they could dominate the World economically and militarily.
By 2001, the US Bush Junior administration of neo-conservatives could no longer resist to test the notion of Instantaneous Expediencies.
The US administration had the urge to put in practice its power of perceived world police force. In no times, the administration delivered its summons to the European Union and the UN to adhere to the US plans of invading Iraq. The material potentials were there but the moral value and culture of the US administration were fidgeted in another era of staunch nationalism and religious zealotry.
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) wrote “Man has survived because he was too ignorant to know how to realize his wishes (desires). Now that he can realize his wishes, then he must either change them or perish“.
China and India Empires: Same and Different
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 28, 2009
China and India Empires: Same and Different (April 28, 2009)
Since antiquity, China and India formed vast empires. They were the wealthiest, the most populous, and the most creative in almost all fields of industries such porcelain, gun powder, paper, vaccines, compass, rudder, the zero, philosophy, art of war and you name it.
Europe relied on the silk, spices, perfume, and luxury items imported from China and India through Persia, Turkey and Egypt. The Great Wall of China is the only human made construction that can be seen from space. Three centuries before Portugal put to sea its galleons to circumnavigate oceans, China had fleet of ships 3 times bigger than the biggest that Spain constructed.
Every society has gone through the same historical development and experienced with feudal systems, caste systems, monarchies, and oligarchies. The difference between China and India are:
First, China had gone through the harrowing communist period but it managed to crush the priesthood or sacerdotal castes. In India the priesthood castes are as powerful as ever. There are millions of this “untouchables” caste, the lowest caste of the five structured by the Brahma and Hinduism religions. The “untouchables” are consecrated by religion to remain untouchables.
Gandhi confronted that humiliating condition head on, but no other modern Indian government or political parties dared to revisit this abomination. In fact, the caste system prevalent in the Middle East was imported from India by the Ottoman Empire.
For over two centuries, Europe was closed to the Ottoman Empire as Turkey was militarily expanding in Europe. The Ottoman Empire had to rely almost exclusively on India for administrative organization, culture, and trades.
Among the good things, we also received the worst that India could export; it is so enduring that the Middle East societies cannot shake off the plight of caste system that is exacerbated by close nit community structure.
Second, China has the mentality of becoming a superpower at par with the USA. Everything that China is doing is at a gigantic measure such as the biggest dam with all the subsequent mass transfer of people, traditions, and customs. The focus on urban centers and industrialization is diverting water from agriculture, the source of its initial prosperity and social stability. A 7-month dry season in the northern part, the wheat basket region, is sending shivers of forthcoming famine.
The rivers in China are heavily polluted and the western diseases from water and land pollution are harvesting thousands of young lives. Over 25, millions were forced to vacate the urban centers to their remote villages after this financial crisis.
India is progressing at a steadier and less drastic strategy and linking the country with new route infrastructures. The cheaper car produced by India are supposedly to be sold in India for only $2,000.
Third, China is investing heavily on energy resources and lands oversea, particularly in Africa. India prefers to cajole the USA and signed a less favorable deal for importing light nuclear rods from the USA and satellites from Israel, though it could produce these advanced technological items.
Fact is that the British Empire held on to India, for 3 centuries, because it realized that the vast Indian population is the hardest working and was adding all the values to the wealth of the British Empire.
During the Soviet Union period of 1917 to 1989, China and India followed the precepts of communism and tight control over private ownership and enterprises. These two nations experienced famine on large scales, and suffered all kinds of miseries and humiliation.
As soon as the Berlin Wall fell and the capitalist system dominated world economy and finance. And China and India transformed their development accordingly.
In China, tiny Deng Xiaoping ordered restitution of collectivity lands to private cultivators and authorized selling part of the production. Then the private agriculturists were permitted to select what they wanted to plant and production tripled. Small enterprises and private shops were granted to be formed and in no time 22 millions small industries were hiring 135 millions employees. In China, small modifications in freedom of choice, and small increases in production mean gigantic increases in internal production.
In India of 1991, the finance minister Manmohan Singh relaxed certain restrictions on doing business. There were no needs for previous permit for each transaction, for importation, for investment, and for increase in production. The Indian economy took off at great strides.
Currently, the GDP of China has surpassed France and Germany and closing up with Japan. Shanghai alone has more high rises than New York and Los Angeles combined or 5,000 high-rises. It is no secret that ten years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, China and India were viewed as the main enemies to the USA and Europe.
China and India are two powers that had the technologies, the know-how, and the resources in raw materials and human potential to rival the economies of western nations. It is no secret that the hurried frenzy of Bush Junior to invading Iraq unilaterally had the main purpose of dominating oil reserves and blackmailing China and India.
Amine Maaluf wrote in “A World Adrift” that Colin Powel told ex-President Bush Junior “You break it; you own it. You invade Iraq then you will end up with the responsibility of caring for 25 million Iraqis” Bush Junior didn’t own it alone; the whole world is sharing the price of a financial and economic meltdown.
In the mean times, China expanded its oil exploration in Africa and built a major pipeline to Russia and Central Asia States.
India built many nuclear reactors and pipelines and are not as affected by energy shortages as Europe that relies on Russia, Algeria, and Libya for gas.
One of the major problems that the world is facing is that in addition to the 50 millions middle class families in the USA and Europe, over 150 millions middle class families in China and India can now afford and demand the same consumer items that the USA and European middle classes enjoyed for a century.
They want their cars, their washing machines, their refrigerators and all the commodities that any human desire to own when he can afford it; it is their right and no one can obstruct or make these new middle class desist from their hard earned rights.
If just 50 million families in the USA and Europe almost exhausted earth minerals and energies. then how humanity is going to satisfy the demands of 200 millions families?
“Ain Wardet” (Village) by Jabbour Douweihy (Book Review, April 26, 2009)
Note: I like a novel to be told chronologically; Ain Wardet was not; it is in Arabic and was translated into French. I could not read it in one trait but as I finished the third of the story then I knew that I had to review it. A general event becomes a particular one; a common person takes the dimension of an individual. I started taking notes knowing that the review will be in chronological order, no matter what: the reader of review needs clarity before he gets excited to venture on the original manuscript.
It is the family of Al Baz (Hawk) that immigrated to Egypt and settled in Alexandria; it made a fortune and got bankrupt as the price of cotton plummeted. The grand parent Francis Senior remembered that he had a country of origin and relative in Lebanon and they returned home. Francis Sr. built a large house in the mountainside village of Ain Wardet (Rose Eye or Rose Fountain) and close to the Capital Beirut.
The Al Baz carried on the traditions and celebrations of Alexandria for many years and clung to friends from Alexandria. They could speak Egyptian Arabic slang but wrote in French.
The first generation of Al Baz is of Francis Jr., Massoud, and Nouhad. Massoud was simple minded and pissed anywhere outside when the urge demanded. Massoud predicted his death to the hour and removed all the patron saints pictures in his room before he died; for example, Saint Joseph disliked people who never used the proper tools.
Nouhad was a tiny spinster that played the matriarch and she maintained the household and the family “status and honor”. At the end of any serious disagreement with the family she would declare “If I am a burden then I am going up to pack and leave”. Nouhad was a prude girl and never admitted that girls should entice men for marriage because either you fall in love or you don’t. She ended suffering from Alzheimer and moved to a retirement community in Bhorsaf.
Francis was led by the director of the internal security to believe that he would be candidate to the parliament on the list of the President of the Republic. In return, Francis had to accommodate an Arab tribe in his basement that moved from Syria and were given Lebanese citizenship. Consequently, Francis would have the authority to buy and sell over 200 heads of the eligible tribal members at election times. As the patriarch of the tribe told it the tribe was located in Mohammara near Homs. One morning an infant stopped suckling and cried pointing westward. The tribe took down the tents and moved for months, guided by the baby’s finger, until they reached a mountain side in Lebanon; then, suddenly the baby stopped crying and his smile showed his only two front teeth.
Francis married Julia of Beirut. Julia was the only kid in her family and educated at a French nuns school; the French Admiral would arrive with his fleet as her dad was in Jerusalem trading gold. Nouhad had no liking for Julia and saw to it that no furniture should be displaced. Francis had Joujou, Rida, and Sara.
Joujou was over 35 when he married Marguerite, a very young Austrian girl studying archeological artifacts in Lebanon during summer. Rida was a master chess player, aloof, and strong headed; at the age of 10 Rida demanded his own chair at the dining table; he wrote and posted the dishes that he didn’t like, and the family did its best not to antagonize Rida. Sara married a Moslem contractor working in Kuwait.
By the time the civil war in Lebanon started the family was already financially broke but the house and the land could not be sold; a special contract called “Progeny inheritance” with clauses that postulated that only the third generation could dispose of the property or any function made of it. This clause prevented Marguerite to carry on her dream project of transforming the first floor as European restaurant.
Rida fell in love head over toe with Nadia and they began reading the 7 volumes of Marcel Proust’s “Reminiscence of lost times”. I will skip this enchanting tale of love story. Nadia died of car accident and Rida decided to isolate in his room. The war trauma generated whiteness in Rida’s fingers that progressed to cover his face. I will skip the corny tale of Rida encounter of the Arab “Femme Fatal” who was abused by her brothers for gain. I have already published a chapter of the war events under the title “Siege Attitudes…” Good reading.
Turkey and Iran: Same and Different
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 27, 2009
Turkey and Iran: Same and Different (April 25, 2009)
Brief history:
hroughout antiquity till our modern days, three main empires dominated the landscape of the Middle East. Turkey, Iran, and Egypt were vast empires and advanced urbanely and economically before the advent of Islam.
Turkey and Iran managed to enjoy a semi-continuous existence of empires but Egypt had large vacuums of many centuries in between empires since the Pharaohs.
Egypt enjoyed special status during the Greek, Roman, Arab, and Ottoman empires and was a world apart as wheat basket and advanced civilization. Turkey and Iran could benefit from stable “national” entities but Egypt experienced foreign leaders as kings or sultans and relied on foreign officers to lead its armies, the latest dynasty was from Albania with Muhammad Ali.
The three empires are currently mostly Moslems and they were in general lenient with the minority religious sects.
The three empires have vast lands, rich in water, and have currently about the same number of population of around 70 millions and increasing at high rates, especially Egypt (90 million).
The Iranian empires relied on the Afghanistanis and the central Asian tribes for their armies. As the frequent Mogul raids descended on Persia its armies went on the defensive.
The Turkish and Ottoman empires relied on the Caucasus tribes from current Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia States, and also from Albania and Romania. As Russia started to expand southward and occupied many of these regions then Turkey curtailed most of its vast military campaigns and went on the defensive.
The Caucasus triangle of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia is still a hot spot for domination among Russia, Turkey, and to a lesser extent Iran, especially with the oil and gas pipelines that pass through them. My post “Cursed Cities: Kars” would shed detailed historical accounts on that tragic triangle.
Modern Status
In around 1920’s two military dictators ruled over Iran and Turkey.
Rida “shah” in Iran and “Ataturk” in Turkey were attempting to modernize their infrastructure and civil administrations by emulating the European examples. Ataturk went as far as changing the Turkish alphabet to Latin and abolishing the Caliphate in Islam.
Both dictators confronted the religious clerics for establishing secular States with unequal long term successes. Iran has reverted to religious oligarchy after Khomeini came to power.
While Iran was historically more clement with its minorities it appears that Turkey is practically taking steps to outpacing Iran in that advantage. For example, Turkey is translating the Koran into the ethnic languages such as Kurdish.
Women in Turkey are prominent in businesses such as Goler Sabanji; 9% of women are represented in the Parliament. In Iran, Shireen Abadi is Nobel laureate for defending women’s rights; Iranian women represent only 3% in the Parliament though they represent 65% in universities.
In the 70’s Iran was flush with oil revenue while Turkey was struggling to establish an industrial infrastructure. It appears that in the long term oil is definitely a curse for emerging nations because wealth is not invested on the human potentials and stable modern political structure.
In 2008, foreign investment in Turkey was 14 billions dollars and increasing while it amounted to just one billion in Iran. Turkey has expanded its representation in Africa by opening 12 new Embassies and 20 new consulates.
Nisreen Ozaimy is from Iran by origin and fled to Turkey; when her family lived in Turkey it was impressed by the confidence that the Turks valued their various ethnic nationalities and they implicit feeling that Turkey is in fact a bridge between East and West. The Turks managed to blend harmoniously the secular and religious inclinations.
The current crisis in the middle-east is changing the landscape: Turkey has alienated most of the Arab world by getting involved and engaged in “Arab” spring upheavals, siding with the Moslem Brotherhood movements, while Iran is heading the resistance front against extremist islam.
List of posts (April 14 to April 24)
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 26, 2009
285. Cursed Cities: Karss (April 14, 2009)
286. Crazy History: Dress it any which way you desire (April 16, 2009)
287. Bi-Weekly Report (#16) on Lebanon and the Middle East (April 16, 2009)
288. Accursed Indexing by the Vatican: Burned alive authors (Part 1, April 17, 2009)
289. “They Tortured me till Dawn” April 18, 2009
290. “Be Free is all that I am” (April 18, 2009)
291. Famous Manuscripts Banned by the Vatican: (Part 2, April 19, 2009)
292. Modern Batch of Banned Manuscripts (April 20, 2009)
293. Power: Modifying the order ranking of natural passions (April 22, 2009)
294. WOMEN IN ISLAM; (Part 1, April 16, 2009)
295. WOMEN IN ISLAM: Infanticide (Part 2, April 17, 2009)
296. WOMEN IN ISLAM: Education (Part 3, April 18, 2009)
297. WOMEN IN ISLAM: Polygamy (Part 4, April 20, 2009)
298. WOMEN IN ISLAM: Marriage (Part 5, April 22, 2009)
299. WOMEN IN ISLAM: Motherhood (Part 6, April 23, 2009)
300. WOMEN IN ISLAM: Divorce (Part 7, April 23, 2009)
301. WOMEN IN ISLAM: Modesty and Dress Codes (Part 8, April 23, 2009)
302. Jewish Colonies in Palestine: Major Dumping Grounds (April 24, 2009)
303. 100 years old RLM and she is kicking (April 25, 2009)
304. Bi-Weekly Report (#17) on Lebanon and the Middle East (April 25, 2009)
305. WOMEN IN ISLAM (Submission to One God) (April 26, 2009)
Love: Women in Islam (Part 9)
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 26, 2009
Love: Women in Islam (Part 9, April 26, 2009)
In the Arabic language there are over 60 terms to express love; from the simple inclination (mawada) to total transport (mutayyam) to violent passion (3ichk) to the agony in love (sababa).
You have: I love you (bahibik, gharami, 3youni, albi, 7ayati…).
There are as many terms for love as there are names for snow in the Eskimo language.
Not an aspect, a detail, a characteristic, a symptom, kind, state, and remedy of love were not studied in the Arabic language and in Islam. Medieval Europe experienced the troubadour love poems or courteous poems via the Arab poetry of Andalusia in southern Spain.
Love has never been a taboo neither in the pre-Islamic period nor in Islam; love has never been an aversion.
People and poets who died out of love were considered high in the tribal communities and martyrs in Islam. That is why even when a love affair was denied because of tribal interest, the tribes cried the death of a love partner who suffered tribal rejection or his love mate.
Islam encourages marriage as constituting half the religious duties and magnifies the necessity that both partners reach sexual pleasure through the art of foreplay and taking time for the female to feel happy and ready for intercourse before entering. In marriage, all exotic love-making and positions are permitted as long as both partners are willing.
Being naked and contemplating nakedness is part of the game. For example Aicha, the beloved wife of the prophet said: “I would take a joint bath with the Prophet after a state of grand impurity”
Women would complain to the judge that her mate prefers exclusively one position to others, particularly the anus intercourse, and she would turn over her sandals (babouj) for the judge to comprehend her complaint. In such cases of wives unsatisfied sexually then they have the right to divorce.
Islam had created licit love-making via temporary contracts called “zawaj al mut3a” (marriage of pleasure) or the marriage of the traveler “nika7 al misyar or moussafer”. These temporary arrangements are true contracts with all the required clauses of financial retribution and obligations.
Adultery is ground for divorce but no where in the Koran does the wife or the husband is subjected to be lapidated (put to death by throwing stones at).
In a previous post, “Women in Islam: Divorce“, I have stated the mechanism and type of divorce. You may refer to post “Women in Islam: Essay”
Moslem women writers are making a comeback in emancipation literature. For example, in French you have Nedjma (Star), a pseudonym, publishing “The Almond” (L’Amande) of the crude sexual education of a Moroccan girl, and “The crossing of the senses” (La Traversee des sens); you have Salwa al Neimi with “The Proof by Honey”; you have Rajaa Alsanea with “The Daughters (or girls) of Riyadh”; you have Zaynab Hifni with “I will cry no more” and “Women at the Equator”
Note: It is no secret that man is at huge disadvantaged in matter of obtaining pleasure in sexual encounters. Women must have known that man is doing his best to convey his attachment and appreciation by pleasuring his woman partner; all that he receives is tension relief after working so hard for his mate to get satisfaction.
Whether a man is having intercourse the procreation type or through anus is of no difference to him in pleasure. If in a few cultures man prefers women with large hips and round behind it is not because of a sign of higher fertility or easier pregnancy but because the naked body of the bent over woman is far lovelier and magnificent than in other positions.
Adonis Diaries 