We Sweden

US monitors al-Shabab activities, from Ethiopia

CAMERA: Com mittee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting

Just now, thinking about our lads Schibbye & Persson,

languishing in a prison,

awaiting trial on counts of unlawful immigration & terrorism

even as

In the meantime, take note

“There is no evidence of any link between Lundin companies and human rights violations in the Ogaden……. Neither Human Rights Watch (HRW) nor Amnesty International have been able to link the company to the crimes against civilians committed in the Ogaden.” (Gleaned from Metro (Stockholm) a few days ago)

Now to some Big News:

1. China Has Homemade Supercomputer Gain

2. Pang Da and Youngman save SAAB ( but the deal’s not yet done….

3. Australian Airways grounded Down Under…

followed by little news:

“Gaddafi´s billions will probably stay in Sweden”

Not everybody’s crying: Post-mortems on Gaddafi …

Rainy day

Sun Ra – Kingdom of Thunder

Iranian, Refusing to Play Israel, Expelled From Chess Meet

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Update

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

After reading this piece,

French Pres: No Such thing as a ‘Jewish State’

I should like whoever is on this page to click on the subject title below. During the last two decades of the cold war, I was one of the avid readers of the Novosti press propaganda publications, to give balance, to the total picture. They did their job very well.

One is now curiously reminded about the propaganda contents of this Novosti press publication – in its time – at a period when the Soviet Union was at its best; but times have changed – although what remains as constant as forever, is JERUSALEM now that the Holy Land is more than ever, the earth centre of planet mankind.

Jews in the USSR by Solomon Rabinovich

Yerushalayim

Miniatyr 7:01Jerusalem – Yerushalayim

Gilad and 1000 Terrorists: NOT the same!

Yesterday’s News

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Monday, 24th October…

Monday, October 24th, 2011

The Mughrabi Gate to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem: The Urgent Need for a Permanent Access Bridge

CAMERA: Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting

Monday , 24^th October, 2011 and all we hear about is “The Arab Spring!”

Are the other ethnic nationalists/nationalities also going to have their turn?

Democracy is Govern-ment of the bebble for the bebble, by the bebble. You agree?

In the meantime – and even in the Middle of the Spring ( no use in giving him any medicine now ) – and as I was say-ing Other Things are happening, in our very midst, right there in da middle of da international community…

This is a popular feel-good expression. “Never have the asses of so many been kicked by so few.”

But you’ve probably never heard this one before:

Never Have So Few Been Blamed for So Much by So Many -
More seriously,

The Cancellation of Restrictions on Jewish Worship at the Western Wall and the Status of the Mughrabi Gate⁵

“After the Six-Day War, the State of Israel adopted a number of measures to guarantee that Jews could realize their right to worship at the Western Wall. The wall was declared a site sacred to the Jews, according to the Ordinances for Safeguarding the Holy Places. Previous restrictions dating from the British Mandatory era that humiliated the Jews who came to worship at Western Wall via diverse and absurd prohibitions were rescinded. (For example, it was decreed that Jews could only pray while standing, they were prohibited from blowing the shofar, the number of Torah scrolls at the site was limited, and passage was afforded to domestic animals in the Western Wall alleyway.) The Israel Supreme Court abolished and the Knesset ratified the termination of “The King’s Order in Council of 1931″ which determined that the Muslim Waqf owned the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. Likewise, actions were taken to transform the Western Wall into the main prayer site for Jews in Israel and worldwide.

In 1967, the narrow alleyway adjacent to the Western Wall was only 28 meters long and 3.4 meters wide. On the night of 10 June 1967, Israel evacuated the residents of the Mughrabi neighborhood and demolished the buildings. The families were compensated and received assistance in finding new homes.⁶ At the beginning of the 1970s the Ibn Saud houses (part of the Mughrabi neighborhood) that adjoined the Mughrabi Gate were also removed. The remains of these houses and a layer of sand that was poured on top of them created a sand embankment that was paved with concrete and became known as the Mughrabi Ascent. This ascent replaced the original road from the Mughrabi neighborhood to the Mughrabi Gate.⁷

At the foot of the Western Wall, the prayer courtyard was extended to 60 meters in length and 40 meters in width, with an upper square intended for ceremonies and state events that extended over an area of 20,000 square meters. A major access road was opened for the myriads of Jewish worshipers who visit the Western Wall every day. The evacuation of the Mughrabi neighborhood vastly increased the section of the wall available for prayer and exposed additional levels. The area next to the wall was also deepened by an additional 2.5 meters.⁸

Israel also expropriated a part of the Western Wall itself 142.72 meters long and 1 meter wide at its base, from the Makhkama building in the north to the southwest corner of the wall in the south, along the entire height of the wall.⁹ The internal religious administration of the Temple Mount itself was entrusted to the Muslim Waqf, while responsibility for the security of the outer envelope of the compound was entrusted to Israel. Jewish prayer was prohibited on the mount, where the Temple had previously stood, but Jews were permitted to visit the site.¹⁰

Prior to August 1967, tourists who went up to the Temple Mount via the Mughrabi Gate paid an entrance fee. The Waqf also viewed the Israelis as tourists and collected money from them. Israel opposed this, but the Waqf was unwilling to depart from its custom. Following a proposal by Minister without Portfolio Menachem Begin, the Israeli government decided that collecting money from Israelis in return for entry to the Temple Mount negated the principal of free access to holy places. The keys to the Mughrabi Gate were taken from the Waqf, and it is the only Temple Mount gate whose keys are in possession of the State of Israel. The gate is also the only one by which tourists who are not Muslim currently enter the mount. The security forces designated the Mughrabi Gate and the ascent to it that extends from the upper Western Wall plaza, as a gate and access road through which police forces enter the mount when the operational need arises.

After the Collapse of the Mughrabi Ascent

After the Mughrabi Ascent collapsed on 14 February 2004, Israeli officials, sensitive to repeated accusations that Israel seeks to undermine the mosques on the Temple Mount, invited one of the Waqf leaders to the site and showed him what had transpired. The Waqf representative promised to convey the facts to his colleagues, but the very next day Israel was accused of conspiring to cause the collapse of the Temple Mount mosques. At the same time, Jerusalem Police Superintendent Mickey Levy ordered the construction of an alternative, temporary wooden bridge to restore access to the Mughrabi Gate.¹¹ Levy termed the new bridge a security structure and the East Jerusalem Development Company built it quickly, facilitating renewed entrance for Jews, tourists, non-Muslims, and security forces.”

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Schibbye & Persson now facing a different reality in another country.

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

K’mal Ka !

Israel donates 165MT relief food to Ethiopian children in drought

CAMERA: Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopian Newspapers

“The good want power, but to weep barren tears.

The powerful goodness want: worse need for them.

The wise want love, and those who love want wisdom;

And all best things are thus confused to ill.”

(Prometheus Unbound )

Re: Bildt avoids Sudan war crimes probe – and I am still only isolating and trying to address the Ethiopian aspect of the issue…one thing at a time please.

Ethiopia.

I’m not asking anyone to read the history of Ethiopia – I myself am mostly, only familiar with Richard Greenfield’s “Ethiopia: a new political history.” which I finally read around the time the Late Emperor Haile Selassie was being horrifically deposed and I read that book in particular simply because Richard Greenfield was the Secretary of the African Studies Department, at Legon, the University of Ghana , whilst my Swedish wife and I were post-graduate students there, 1970-71. I came to Sweden from Ghana, thru London (where my parents lived) by boat from Harwich to Göteborg, by train from Goteborg through the Van Gogh and Gauguin yellow-ochre autumn forests, to windy Kalmar on 8^th October 1971, and eventually to Stockholm, Strandvagen 57, where we first perched, a few weeks later…..

By all means be familiar with some history and then take a look at the administrative map of Ethiopia : The Ogaden issue is deeper than at first sight

I cannot remember Mr. Bildt ever acting irresponsibly. He is not a bandit, so why try to paint him as one? Prior to being appointed Foreign Minister in October, 2006, Mr. Bildt was leader of the Moderate Party and Prime Minister of Sweden between 4 October 1991 and 7 October 1994, when the winds of change were blowing…

Carl Bildt represents certain values that we are to take for granted – after all he has a distinguished diplomatic ancestry going back to Dag Hammarskjöld, if you would like to take Mr. Hammarskjöld as a convenient starting point of distinguished Swedish Diplomacy – and the values, the Human Rights Values that I’m naming transcend party affiliation, especially after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

In 2007, “The US government ordered Meles Zenawi to release the Americans as soon as possible without any delay”

or else?
Or else they would send the marines?

Or else what?

Or else the US would have stopped bankrolling the Ethiopian army operations in Somalia?

And what should successive Swedish governments have done about Raoul Wallenberg?

And what should the Swedish government now do or should have done ages ago about Dawit Isaak in Eritrea – because Dawit ( if indeed he is still alive) has been imprisoned for over 3,681 days now, and the last time the president of Eritrea was asked, “ Where is Dawit Isaak?” – he said that he didn’t know where he was – and that for me is a figurative way of saying that he doesn’t know if he’s in heaven or in the other place……

Like the real US government, should the “real Government” of Sweden also issue a powerful ultimatum such as “ Release Dawit Isaak – OR ELSE!”

- or else what?

Afwerki might think that we are suffering from illusions of grandeur – the kind of grandeur that will not easily remove the fleet of Israeli nuclear-tipped submarines stationed outside Eritrean waters.

Next thing you know we (Sweden) should be issuing orders to the Islamic Republic of Iran to cease all nuclear activities peremptorily – OR ELSE !

And the strongman of Belarus/White Russia just around the corner should we also give him marching orders to re-form – OR ELSE…

Well, I happen to believe in unity whether it’s China or Korea – more in that than in two, three or four state solutions ( Ask Lawrence of Arabia , the Arabs revolted against the Turks/ The Ottoman Empire, because they wanted their little and great states. They got them … they are now experiencing the so called “ Arab Spring”

The solution of course is that all exist under a constitutional umbrella that accords equal rights and a fair share of the proceeds from the country’s natural resources – and not that the sections of the country in which the Almighty has buried precious natural resources should want to secede and leave the rest of their brethren in the lurch. I suppose that you are probably in sympathy with Golda Meir who said “Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil! “ – and perhaps even with Gaddafi who long ago invited Israel to join the Arab League?

There’s a pernicious conspiracy theory which has been circulating for a few decades now, that there are some power elements which would like to down-size nation states, such as Ethiopia – and you notice that the “Eritrea” section is gone…. ditto Sudan – the South is gone, and there are proposals about Nigeria, Morocco, many other whole countries with shared histories of peoples who the certain power elements would like to see truncated, reduced to size…..weakened ….

International relations are also power relations ( even in the name of the EU or the UN) . We are dealing with human nature and of course with cause and effect……..I am not about to unravel these matters but have the patience to do so now; and now just as we and Anders Borg are probably thanking our lucky stars that we are not EURO , so too David Cameron is certain to face possible rebellion on Monday when he tables his EU motion

A footnote to ” moali”:

You talk about “widespread and vindictive ethnic cleansing campaign in the Ogaden.” In the same breath you might even be talking about the Swedish Sami People?

1.Thou shalt not exaggerate!

2.Thou shalt not be heartless – or ascribe heartlessness to Sweden’s Foreign Minister towards Swedish Citizens in distress.

3.There is no Lundin Oil Company in Ethiopia ….get it: Carl Bildt resigned from being on the board of Directors prior to being appointed Foreign Minister on 6^th October, 2006

And looka here: There is the UN you know. It’s not only the mighty Sweden that is going to solve all the problems in Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The Swedish Govt advised against travelling to Ogaden. Messrs Schibbye & Persson ignored the warning. Who is to blame? If you think that Carl Bildt is to blame for not waving his magic wand and freeing them and all the Ethnic Somalis of Ogaden, then you should be recommending mass Swedish illegal immigration to the province. The Swedes can enter Ethiopia through Somalia and then enlist the aid of the Terrorist Guerilla who you say are “struggling for the rights of the Ogaden people” – and perhaps even – in sympathy to the cause – join the guerilla.

What do you think about that? And then what should Carl Bildt DO?

Other realities:

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Ten days to the beginning of the trial real, (like Golgotha?) Schyibbe and Persson plead sorry, “not guilty”

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

K’mal Ka !

CAMERA: Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopian Newspapers

There are a couple of plums in skribent Jesper Bengtsson’s pudding. Please pardon my Swenglish, you see, I’m a Swenglishman.( Only linguistically speaking of course.)

Here are a few of Bengtsson’s plums worthy of our extra attention in thinking defensively on behalf our land’s-men who have just pleaded “ Not Guilty” to every charge of consorting with the insurgents as constituting an act of terrorism:

From his words :

“ He starts by questioning “Carl Bildt’s first comment in the summer, that the two journalists should not have travelled to Ogaden “ and “ Hakan Juholt’s comment that we must respect the judicial system in Ethiopia’s dictatorship.”

He’s begging the question here, and I don’t know exactly what he means by “respect” in general ( such as respect for a country’s sovereignty etc.) and respect as he uses the word here – with regard to the Justice system in Ethiopia and another fifty countries that have a different Legal System from Sweden’s. In my opinion, one way of not respecting the Legal System, even when you are a guest or a friend of that country, is to DISRESPECT it – and of course to be equally prepared for the sometimes dire consequences of expressing such disrespect – by for example “ like a thief in the night” entering the country illegally.

What puzzles me is that although Schyibbe and Persson would have had to have undergone an extensive suntan, to be able to pass as Ethiopian and not stick out as tourist Tarzans, equipped as they are with a camera and a writing pad, by which to report back home in Wazunguland, about how things are going there with the semi-barbaric or underdeveloped foreign system…. to report back about the trials and tribulations of legal Justice among other things that happen to be happening down there. For,

the truth shall set you free.

Bengtsson, then follows this up with a series of (självklara) rhetorical questions, of his own mintage of course, reasonable, loaded, one-dimensional rhetorical questions based on his own convenient premises according to his own points system. Then,

Bengtsson continues, “…it is obvious that one can take the help of a guerilla to enter a conflict zone. Such a trip is of course risky…”

“.. discussion is important because it is often an urgent situation.” ( Bengtsson)

He says, “I really think you have to be open to arguments from all sides about the best way” The best way forward? Cheers. Jag håller med. Jag håller särskilt med Carl Bildt

We ( Sweden ) can be sure that (silent diplomacy of course) and at the same time no one says that the way forward should not be discussed. We have only cautioned against the belligerent kind of gruff.

Finally, we unearth a little nugget here when Bengtsson tosses up the idea of – possibly – Lundin Oil – being able to put in a good word for Messrs Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson.

And here, too I’m not being facetious, Lundin is merely a commercial venture , whilst the institution known as the Ethiopian Church is revered and has stood the test of time…. and… I do suppose that they more than anyone else would be best placed to intercede on Human-itarian grounds – if they are so inclined.

You should know that on the whole the Ethiopians are a religious lot……and very civilised.

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Schyibbe and Persson plead “not guilty”

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

K’mal Ka !

Criticism of Bildt is completely without substance

CAMERA: Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopian Newspapers

Granted that Schyibbe and Persson were not on Her Majesty’s Service / O.H.M.S., I still wonder how Carl Bildt’s critics would have handled the sensitive case of Gilad Shalit, a hero of his country, if Gilad were Swedish…..

Preposterous?

The trial of Schyibbe and Persson is not about press ethics, a free press etc…..

They are charged with something else.

I should like to share chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Karin Enstrom’s exoneration of our Foreign Minister Carl Bildt who has been under fire by some of the usual Rambo critics who would prefer to drop a bomb on Addis or on President Meles Zenawi himself or if they had the resources could even imagine sending in the Marines….( the Swedish Marines, I suppose) :

It was not a nightmare.

Last night I dreamed that a high level delegation of Sverigedemokraterna arrived in Addis Ababa, for discussions with the the Ethiopian Government about the freeing of their blood Brethren Schyibbe and Persson.

I woke up wondering how they had fared and realised that I myself was no longer in Addis with them but only getting out of bed, in Sweden.

Wondered why I hadn’t dreamed about Gilad Shalit instead.

Well, we are not always in control of our dreams or what we dream — and by the way, thinking of lions as in the lion of the house of Judah or the lion that escaped in Ohio - a Pakistani psychologist told me that dreaming that you were in mortal combat with a lion and won the battle, means that you will overcome whatever difficulty you’re facing…..

The drama continues: The trial of Schyibbe and Persson was scheduled to begin today, Thursday but has now been postponed till the 1^st of November

This will provide more time for silent diplomacy which could succeed in reducing the length of the prison terms , and if St. Christopher the patron saint of Travellers also has heavenly powers of intercession/ tawassul, then everybody, the SD, the KD, the M, the C, the Reds and the Greens will all soon, be celebrating the homecoming, for Christmas

In the age of digital TV that’s transmitting the trial of Michael Jackson’s Dr. Murray , it’s certain that the Swedish home audience would appreciate a live and direct coverage of the trial of Schyibbe and Persson and the others who have been charged along with them

That alone could provide the kind of publicity for all the causes that are being featured about sovereign Ethiopia – which it seems to me , some people would like to colonise, domesticate and replicate in their own national image and likeness.

Jesper Bengtsson says, “I sincerely hope that Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye will soon be free.”

By “soon” , he probably means in a few days time, or after the verdict is arrived at after a trial which may go on for weeks, and not after a few months, years, or decades of imprisonment.

Jesper Bengtsson’s “soon” is predicated on the arguments he lays out on behalf of Schibbye & Persson, beginning with ( his words) :

“Firstly, for a free and independent press, it is obvious that one can take the help of a guerilla to enter a conflict zone. Such a trip is of course risky and you have to constantly be aware that there is a site of conflict as presented, but it is a highly motivated journalistic approach..Yesterday in TV4 told of how journalist Bengt Nilsson travelled with another guerilla in Ethiopia, 22 years ago, a guerilla which was then headed by the current Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi.

It’s certain that Meles Zenawi did not have anything against Nilsson’s journey.”

That would be putting Meles Zenawi’s guerilla activities on the same moral plane as that of the classified secessionist terrorists in Ogaden province – and extending that argument, then everybody has a right to enter Ogaden and to be nonchalant about the Swedish Government’s recommendation that Swedish citizens should not travel to Ogaden – and of course , in my opinion, in doing so, those who ignore such warnings should feel free and be ready to face the consequences.

To use one of Professor Eidelberg’s favourite phrases, “Moral equivalence “, in many corners of the world I can think of several other even more ridiculous examples than the one given by Bengtsson, should he want to search for an explanation / justifications for illegal entry into another country, and associating with the enemy.

He could start in Northern Iraq where the Turks are bombarding alleged PKK bases…and civilians…

( to be continued)

After Over Five Years: Gilad Shalit Reunites With His Family

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Schibbye and Persson…. Thursday

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Update: Swedes’ terror trial in Ethiopia delayed

Hopefully, Persson and Schibbye who has been blowing kisses to the courtroom crowd know exactly what is expected of them, to possibly be granted a pardon, so that they do not wind up being crucified even if they think that there are a thousand angels that could be called upon to protect them…..

If they are wholly in the right, then they should be returning to finish the job, or send others to do it and there’s nothing to apologise about.

What they need to show is their soft side. Of course if they were dealling with someone like Dada Idi Amin, they would have thought twice about the possibility of having to live feed the Lake Victoria crocodiles……. and that would have been sufficient deterrent……

The good news is that

Gilad Shalit

is free, today…..

Shalit trade; Revolving Door Terrorism

Ethiopian delegates ‘too poor’ for Sweden visa

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Low profile: Calling Addis: re- Schibbye and Persson

Monday, October 17th, 2011

“Vengeance is mine” saith the Lord of Hosts, the Lord Of Lords and King of Kings of Kings.

“To err is human, to forgive divine”?

Swedish news

Charged with terrorism (“Spokesman Shimeles, a former government prosecutor, said the two Swedes are alleged to have been carrying weapons, and were captured after a gun battle.”)

All we can beg for is mercy and a favourable outcome of what could otherwise be a terrible fate: therefore we humbly beseech you Prime Minister Meles Zenawi (certainly one of the most outstanding leaders of our time) – and we humbly beseech you and the Ethiopian Justice system, to at least pardon our still good-hearted even if slightly errant, recalcitrant Swedes for over-zeal which made light of transgressing borders, in the search for the Holy Grail and the holy gravy, in search of their daily bread.

Consider: We – Schibbye and Persson and Svensson too, are your friends, friends, not enemies.

If only we could cushion our appeal in the more submissive style of the eloquent Ethiopian Elders and their priests as recorded in the legends of The Kebra Nagast.

Your humble Brother,

Cornelius

Now to the jokesters:

As I said earlier, I’m thinking about our lads in Ethiopia, Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson, as I write this. They lost their compass, entered sovereign foreign territory. They trespassed. They were wrong-doers. I am wishfully thinking, if only there were some escape mechanism (first night when the moon is bright) or on the diplomatic front some kind of exchange mechanism, such as “OK, we have a couple of your freedom fighters over here – so you give us our two and you can have two of yours back : fair exchange is no robbery. But alas! And if we could then we would use some powerful ranch talk:“OK you return our lads before the sun sets or you know what? We kick your ass!”.

In thinking about the short term fate of Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson, I wish that the Swedish press and public opinion would desist from criticizing Meles Zenawi as if he’s the one who has done wrong. Zeles is not an illegal alien. Meles has not entered Sweden without a valid – visa…etc. etc. A very admirable Meles who has been president of Ethiopia since he was thirty five years of age and today, Ethiopia is economically more prosperous than she has been for a very long time

In my opinion, Carl Bildt’s attitude is the right one – Ethiopia ( never colonised) is not the kind who’s going to cringe….

Some Swedes seem to think that Lundin Oil is the centre of the earth’s gravity at the moment. At the very start you have to make a very clear distinction in your mind, between two things: That Lundin Oil is one thing, and that Swedish Foreign Policy is another.

It’s serious matter, although the press (as usual under stress and duress) are acting like they are desperately trying to make sense out of nonsense, when it’s clear-cut : They lost their compass.

Serious. Matter of life: Swedes charged with terror crimes in Ethiopia

Journalists plan action : Swedish reporters plan prison protest

The latest: Dear America, Sweden should ask for US help to free journalists jailed in Ethiopia’

The fallout from this once minor now major foreign Affairs affair, the hysteria tethering on the edge of someone’s plea about human rights getting sharper and sharper as they approach the imaginary guillotine or worse still the hangman’s noose hoping for the heroes to say honourably like Nathan Hare, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

This is a suitably chrono-logical introduction to the brouhaha, in Swedish, “kalabalik”, the whole thrilling mess of it, the very foundations of a John le Carré movie. Here is the sequence of Swedish -Ethiopia news for June – it gets more intense after June:

Swedish fraudster jailed in Ethiopia

Swedish reporters held in custody in Ethiopia

Swedes in Ethiopia may stand trial on Tuesday

Ethiopians deny charges against jailed Swedes

Jailed Swedes on the way to Ethiopian capital

And on and on and on, multiple daily updates… the latest….

‘Sweden should ask for US help to free journalists jailed in Ethiopia’

The gravity of the situation not withstanding, I hope that it will end like this, with everybody happy – and no one cheated : or like this after this appeal

homage

homme-age

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Much has happened since Abbas’ flute and piano concerto

Sunday, October 16th, 2011

Very funda-mentally,

Over 900 ‘Life Sentences’ to be Annulled

CAMERA: Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting

As has been variously said about the Shalit deal :

“Objectively speaking, Israel can expect to pay a terrible price for this exchange given that the deal involves reducing the life sentences of two hundred and eighty mass murderers responsible for hundreds of Israeli deaths. Many will argue that there can be no moral or practical justification for such an exchange.”

“Israel is paying a huge price to bring Gilad home. Some of the worst terrorists are expected to be freed. Our joy and relief for Gilad and his family is tempered by concern and fear that so many killers will be set free. It’s a difficult time for the citizens of Israel.”

Hamas: Released Terrorists will “Return to Struggle”

Hamas: Shalit Won’t Be Last Soldier We Kidnap -

Sunday, 16^th October, 2011 and what do I see?

Christmas is coming with terrorism on the horizon.

It’s at Christmas time that the west loudly proclaims the Christmas message of “Peace on Earth and goodwill to all men!”Makes you wonder what kind of Christmases were experienced by Christians in Europe during the fateful years between Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia on 15th March to the official start of WW2 on 1^st September 1939 to 15^th August 1945 when Japan surrendered

I ask because I was not yet born. Which does not mean to say that I don’t remember Haji Amin unable to wipe the grin off his face, sitting there hand-in-hand and side-by-side beside his best friend in Berlin and neither of Haji Amin a Muslim follower of “ the prophet Jesus” nor the Fuehrer wishing peace on earth and goodwill to all men.

I see Christmas coming and terrorism on the horizon…and I see it clearly, not through a glass darkly.

It’s not only the three wise men who know that Jewish Jesus was of mother Mary born in Bethlehem, in what is today being claimed as everybody’s holy land…

For them (the three wise men) the questions are three (and none of them has to do with the Trinity) :

Who are the Palestinian prisoners set for release in Shalit deal?

Is it better to be alone than in bad company?

How could Missing Libya Missiles Turn Up in Gaza ?

I just watched Jimmy Carter being his affable former Southern Baptist self in the

special Intelligence² interview on the BBC

- he has interesting things to say about the Middle East and among other things he wants to make clear as fact that he is a supporter of Israel and that it was during his watch that peace was brokered between Israel and Egypt. As you may have noted, in dealing with the last question he was asked, he tells us that he would like to restore USA to being the most peaceful nation on earth, perhaps perpetually/ permanently worthy of the Noble Peace Prize which Obama could receive next year, if we are lucky, not for Bush’s Iraq and Afghanistan or for Pakistan but for what has so far been the elusive peace in the Middle East….but for one thing : terrorism…..

I’m thinking about our lads in Ethiopia, Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson, as I write this. They lost their compass, entered sovereign foreign territory. They trespassed. They were wrong-doers. I am wishfully thinking, if only there were some escape mechanism (first night when the moon is bright) or on the diplomatic front some kind of exchange mechanism, such as “OK, we have a couple of your freedom fighters over here – so you give us our two and you can have two of yours back : fair exchange is no robbery. But alas! And if we could then we would use some powerful ranch talk:“OK you return our lads before the sun sets or you know what? We kick your ass!”.

In my opinion, Carl Bildt’s attitude is the right one – Ethiopia ( never colonised) is not the kind who’s going to cringe….

( Some American friends and I once got an American from Wisconsin arrested on a fake charge of spying in one of Africa’s poorer nations. – far from being nonplussed, when he got to the police station he threw down his all-mighty American passport on the police Sargent’s desk and and hollered in defiance “I am an American citizen: you can’t do this to me!” In Iran today he could have been a little more humble.

The Israel Government – Hamas exchange deal brokered by the military strongmen of Egypt invites commentary and much pontificating on the theme of moral equivalence, when the going exchange rate is 1 to 1000 ..

In case all of the above is all too dreary dear friend, here’s some good news to perk you up if your dearrie was getting a little weary: på rikssvenska, combining the features of dramatic irony and mild poetic justice:

Much has happened. Someone’s best friend Vilks is in trouble and his enemies are therefore HAPPY!

“ Det är Vilks egna livvakter från polisen som ska ha anmält konstnären efter att han sågat ned ett träd i naturreservatet Kullaberg i Skåne, skriver Aftonbladet.

Trädet ska sedan ha använts till Vilks konstverk Nimis, höga torn av drivved som byggts vid naturreservatets strand utan tillstånd.

Vilks själv säger till tidningen att han har svårt att tro att det är polisen som står bakom anmälan.”

The artist Lars Vilks reported to police

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African music ? You mean The Great African Music?

Saturday, October 15th, 2011

This is not the subjective all-omniscient voice (on the www)

This is only little kunta

small-talking

somebody.

We, as in We Sweden

I mean

“ We as little people

on the rim

of this planet, spinning

in vast space…….”

and

you are permitted to hold on

for

here comes the sun

If you are still in the mode of “extra sanctimonious”, yes, I guess you’ve come to the right place

you could say that there are gradations of evil, from the bad to those who will provide the fuel for the other place….

Pepe Kalle used to holler thunder and chant about “ Mafia Congo!” ( nah kufa o!) – this was during the time of The Leopard ( Mobutu Sese Seko) and his son, the minister of information and nicknamed Saddam Hussein. I’ve only attended a Pepe Kalle dance exactly once – and that was in Stockholm,otherwise I have always imagined him on stage or in the studio waving his finger at “Mafia Congo!” (king weed) whilst his soul is there in Kinshasa (the qibla of Soukous) and from there, like Karl XII pointing at Russia, Pepe Kalle would be pointing at Brazza ( sort of the Tel Aviv of the Holy Soukous psalms…

Music moves, so it’s always a journey of discovery, discovering another country. To be left alone on some eternally deserted island, having scoured the world I think that I’d settle down on my island in the sun with some Haitian music.

Little me (as in Malcolm Little) is just a little bit of genetic, protoplasmic, multi-culturalized -ism .

What about you?

So you think you are bad?

By the time you get to the bottom of this page – if you do – you’ll catch some clues as Louis Farrakhan answers the key kweshon, “Who are the real gangsters? “

It’s what my anti-Semitic homeboy wanted me to listen to when I visited him a few weeks ago.

But better than all that is music.

First of all, all the classical music one associated with autumn or the falling snow – perhaps all of the wrong type including Mozart the sub-lime, Handel & Bach, St. Paul’s Westminster Choir, the type of music played at the old school I attended in Fulham….

Rock and roll was always around. And then after all that ridiculous admixture of Tommy Steele, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Billy Holiday and all that Ebenezer Calendar “Calypso” and the Goombay Music often played at Creole social events, as a youngster in Sierra Leone the first type of music that I remember consciously listening to and consciously liking – to the extent that I made myself a flute out of the reed of a paw-paw tree and tried sounding like Johnny Pacheco on flute – was – Afro-Cuban music with Johnny Pacheco, Celia Cruz , Mongo Santamaria, Dizzy Gillespie and Machito Orchestra and of course even without a kilt, dancing to Jimmy Shand….

Tito Puente

Once upon a time everybody in Freetown was familiar with the light melodies of Edmundo Ross and his Orchestra, just as some others were even more at home with Victor Sylvester…

Here’s a very contemporary Sekouba Bambino singing Viens danser with the Africando Orchestra and reminding one of those days.

Bemebya Jazz came later, so did Franco Luambo Makiadi, popularly known as Franco

and Seigneur Rochereau with Dr. Nico & African Fiesta Sukisa …

( to be continued)