Indian workers exploited for 2010 Commonwealth Games

India has less than a year before the start of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.It is the biggest international sports event the country has hosted in two decades.But as pressure mounts to complete venues on time, there is growing criticism over the treatment of workers.Many are saying they lack even basic facilities.They are crammed in plastic tents and entire families are forced to live there without sanitary facilities.

Indonesia's Team 8, recommendation to the President.

A corruption fact finding team, known as team  8 has recommended Indonesia's President to overhaul the country's major law enforcement bodies.

101 East - The spread of sharia

Does Islamic law have a place in modern, pluralist Indonesia? A discussion on Acheh experience, Serambi Mekah of Indonesia.

Trafigura Corruption fears over Ivory Coast toxic waste victims' £30m Trafigura payout

guardian.co.uk

A pot of £30m compensation due to be paid to thousands of African victims of toxic waste may end up being stolen thanks to the Ivory Coast regime's corruption, their lawyers said today.

The money was handed over by oil traders Trafigura in an out-of-court settlement in London and deposited in a bank in the west African state's capital, Abidjan, ready to be shared out in cash to each of the 30,000 victims. But the entire sum has been frozen in a sudden move backed by the local state prosecutor, according to Martyn Day, the senior partner at Leigh Day, the London lawyers who won the landmark settlement.

What You Didn't Know About The War

This video is mandatory viewing to all supporters of the war(s).

Eradicating world hunger

A UN summit is trying to find a way to help the world's hungry to help themselves. 

Democracy gone wrong.

The recent history of Ethiopia.

What is alJazeera preparing for & for whom?

Saudi Arabia is continuing to attack a Shia rebel stronghold in northern Yemen by air, while Saudi troops and Houthi rebels have been engaged in bloody clashes for more than a week.

At least two Saudi soldiers have been killed in the latest fighting, and the conflict is further raising tensions in the region, with Iran warning Saudi Arabia not to interfere in Yemen's internal affairs.

Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, said on Sunday: "The intervention of Saudi government in Yemen and repeated bombardment of unprotected Yemeni Muslims by Tornado and F-15 fighters is astounding.

"How has his Excellency, the servant of the two honourable shrines, allowed Muslims' blood be split in Yemen by means of its military devices? The news proves that the US government has been the accomplice and assistance in such suppressive measures."

The Iranian parliament also called on the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to intervene to stop the killing of Yemeni Muslims.

Hashem Ahelbarra reports from Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, where he's been gauging the fallout from this ongoing battle.

The Capitalist Conspiracy .

1 year ago  |  Edward Griffin 

- The Capitalist Conspiracy: An Inside view of International Banking Written and narrated by G. Edward Griffin (1960's) An old film, made sometime in the 60's. 

This is an adaptation of a documentary filmstrip tracing the history of a small group of people who control the money systems of the world. It shows how this group is protected by governments and how its wealth is derived by creating money out of nothing. 

We see how this group wields power through government, foundations, education, and the mass media. It has aided such regimes as Russia and China, not because it is pro-Communist, but because a visible enemy and the threat of war have been useful in persuading the masses to embrace the group's ultimate goal: a world government which they expect to control from behind the scenes. 

They are now working to replace fear of nuclear war with fear of global pollution as the motivation for world government. It is clear that the plan revealed in this program continues to unfold. Monopoly is not an outgrowth of capitalism. 

Monopolists lobby for laws that give them advantages in the market place. Monopoloy is not based on free-enterprise competition, but the escape from it. It is not the product of capitalism but the bedfellow of socialism. Watch video in the side bar..

Russia honours Mr Kalashnikov

The weapon of choice for soldiers and rebels alike, the Kalashnikov assault rifle went into mass production six decades ago.

Today, more than 100 million AK47s have been sold worldwide. Its huge success is due to its simplicity and ease of maintenance, all thanks to its Russian inventor - Mikhail Kalashnikov.

Now the man who invented it is celebrating his 90th brithday. Al Jazeera correspondent Neave Barker visited Kalashnikov's home town of Izhevsk to meet the man and the significance and consequences of his invention.

The fall of the Berlin Wall - Anniversary

In one of the most historic moments of the 20th century, ending the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall sent tremors throughout eastern Europe.

with the 20th anniversary just days away, Al Jazeera's David Frost sat down with the two world leaders who made it happen - Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader, and George H W Bush, the former US president.

Kenya accused of training Mogadishu fighters.

Lured by promises of a better future, thousands of young Africans from nations neighbouring Somalia are being recruited into the conflict in the capital, Mogadishu.

Al Jazeera has spoken to families in Northern Kenya who say their men and children are being taken off to train in secret camps, and that the Kenyan government is involved.

Mohammed Adow reports from Nairobi.

"Children of War"

American filmmaker Bryan Single explores the rehabilitation process of former child soldiers in northern Ugandan in his new movie "Children of War." The film premiered recently (Tuesday/November 3) in Washington. Mariama Diallo reports.

A practicing Muslim Major runs amok in US military camp.

An Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a practicing Muslim psychiatrist suspected of opening fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood..   read  more  >>

STRATFOR security expert Fred Burton describes the complex process of investigating a shooting spree that killed 12 people and injured scores more at Fort Hood, Texas.

After 20 Years of Filmmaking on US Injustices, Michael Moore Goes to the Source in “Capitalism: A Love Story”

The truth emerges

By ANDREW SIA | Sunday October 25, 2009 | staronline

A former minister shares eyebrow-rising inside stories from his long political career.

UNLESS the name on the cover is Mahathir or Badawi, ministerial memoirs wouldn’t usually be greeted with bated breath.

But the book by Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat that was released on Oct 12 has been causing quite a stir.

He was, after all, the person who controlled for more than a decade what the Malaysian public saw and heard on Government TV and radio channels as Information Minister from 1987 to 1999.

Now, aged 71 and suffering from diabetes and cancer, Tok Mat, as he is known, freely admits that his job was really as a Propaganda Minister.

In his political memoirs (photo), Umno: Akhir Sebuah Impian (Umno: The End of a Dream), he explains how his ministry’s campaigns, such as Setia (Loyalty), were actually a response to the Team A versus Team B split in Umno in 1987.

“I had to bring Malay loyalty back to Umno. And I had to raise a presumption that anybody who supported (Team B led by Tengku Razaleigh then) was not loyal. I went all out in this psychological warfare,” he writes.

“The Malays were numb to political arguments ... I needed something that penetrated the heart. I needed a song.”

So he wrote one himself: the famous Setia song with its supposedly patriotic lyrics (“Demi negara yang tercinta”, or “For our beloved country”, goes the first line) that was broadcast for years especially via the Government’s RTM (Radio Televisyen Malaysia) stations.

Tok Mat admits in his book that he first used Information Ministry staff in 1977 on a “mission” to topple the PAS State Government of Kelantan.

He reveals that later, in 1995, during the Sabah state elections, he sent 500 ministry staff members to “campaign for Umno” against PBS (Parti Bersatu Sabah, which was controlling the state government then).

“The officers went to the ground,” he explains in fluent English at a recent interview.

“They rented rooms in villages, they slept and ate like the locals, they gathered information and persuaded the people. This silent propaganda works very well.”

Since government machinery is supposed to be neutral, I ask Tok Mat if he considers what he did an abuse of power.

He replies: “You could say I abused radio and TV, but it was a privilege I had. I could not depend on TV3, (The New) Straits Times, Berita Harian or Utusan Malaysia because they were then controlled by Anwar Ibrahim’s boys. I had no choice but to use RTM.

“I was asked to bring PBS down. I shut the media off, there were no reports. People didn’t know what the Sabah Government was doing, so it looked like they were doing nothing. It was a very dirty tactic,” he now admits.

Tok Mat (photo) had his secondary school education at Johor Baru’s English College before doing a Bachelor of Arts at Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta.

He tells me that he learnt the basics of propaganda when he was a script writer for Filem Negara (the National Film Board) in

the mid 1960s. “There was no TV then, so that was the Government’s only (way to generate) propaganda,” he recalls.

He honed his innate musical ability there and picked up film editing skills too. He later went on to personally devise the melody and lyrics of various songs, including Setia, Syukur and Sejahtera Malaysia, that were used for his “nation-building” campaigns.

Tok Mat has always had a fondness for oldies by Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby, and once even made it to the quarter finals of Radio Singapore’s talentime singing contest in the 1950s.

“Tan Sri can sing and he can play the piano by ear,” chips in his wife, Puan Sri Salbiah A. Hamid, who is also at the interview. “And he can write. I still keep all his love letters from when we met as teenagers,” she smiles.

With these skills, Tok Mat became the chief loyalist and cheerleader for then Prime Minister Datuk Seri (now Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whose political rivals included Musa Hitam, Tengku Razaleigh and, later, Anwar.

He claims that most Umno people were hedging their bets then: “Everybody was half leg here, half leg there, very few were working (100%) for Dr Mahathir. I was totally devoted to him.”

But then again, he has a chapter in his book that declares I Am Not a Yes Man. In it, he cites how the developers of the Second Link to Singapore, who were Dr Mahathir’s “friends”, were trying to acquire the land of villagers in his constituency at 80 sen per sq ft (psf) so they could resell it at RM17.80 psf! He claims that he spoke up despite Dr Mahathir’s anger with him, and helped the villagers secure a better deal.

When the Setia campaign was not sufficient to bring back Malay support to Umno, Tok Mat says his ministry then launched the Semarak campaign in 1988, during which Dr Mahathir had massive “meet the people” sessions.

“I told the police chief,” says Tok Mat, “I don’t want to see any police uniforms around Mahathir, because that looks like we live in a police state. Instead, I gave the policemen Setia T-shirts to wear, so it looked like he was surrounded by the public.”

Tok Mat’s promotion of Dr Mahathir – who certainly had his critics, even in those days – indirectly made him “the most hated man in Malaysia”, he says.

In his book, he even acknowledges that people called him the “barking dog of the government”: “When the people hated Dr Mahathir, I became the face of the Government for them to hurl abuse at,” he writes.

But he took all this as a sign of “success” because it meant that he had managed to “penetrate people’s minds” to provoke anger: “In the art of propaganda, touching a nerve is very important,” he explains.

Tok Mat claims that a sign of Setia’s success was that he has personally heard even non-Malays singing the song. As for the Semarak campaign, he says the crowds at Dr M’s meet-the-people sessions ranged from 30,000 up to 100,000.

Were civil servants “pressured” into attending such events?

“No,” he asserts, “nor did we provide transport or give out free T-shirts.”

His “propaganda” might have been successful, but the Government still hired a PR and advertising firm during his tenure to advise on winning popular support. Now in hindsight, he is critical of the move.

“I think I was more effective because I understand the culture better. I had 1,000 officers working on the ground giving me feedback. Even Pak Lah (former PM Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) used these foreigners. But what results did these PR people get?”

Tok Mat’s detractors say one of his career missteps took place in May 1999 when many Malays were angry at Umno over the Anwar Ibrahim saga.

Tok Mat alienated non-Malay voters (who were to play a crucial role in returning Barisan Nasional to power in the general elections later that year) with his infamous remark that Anwar’s wife, Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, was “unfit” for leadership as she had been “educated in Singapore” and had “darah cap naga” (dragon brand blood), an euphemism for Chinese blood or lineage.

“No, it wasn’t a mistake,” says Tok Mat now. “Because Anwar wanted Azizah to become Prime Minister. By the way, I am also cap naga. My mother is a Chinese (who was adopted by Malays). So I can talk. I can scold the Chinese and the Malays because I am one of them.”

Whether by coincidence or not, Tok Mat was relieved of his minister’s post in May 1999 too. However, he writes that this was because “forked tongues” whispered to Dr Mahathir that he was a secret Anwar supporter.

“What I can’t forget is the way Dr Mahathir dropped me without any hati budi (grace and gratitude),” he writes in the chapter entitled Habis Madu Sepah Dibuang (When the Sweetness is Finished, the Tasteless Part is Thrown Away).

Since then, he has become more critical of his former political master. For instance: “We know that Dr Mahathir blamed Pak Lah in all aspects even though the initial problems were caused by he himself. This is the ‘expertise’ of Dr Mahathir,” writes Tok Mat sardonically.

Despite his rather caustic tone, Tok Mat says to me, “It may sound like it lah ... but I don’t hate Dr Mahathir. I’m not angry with him. I still consider him a great leader of the country.”

In fact, he leaps to Dr Mahathir’s defence when I ask him about other controversial episodes when Dr M was PM.

However, he adds that money politics really became a “cancer” within Umno during Dr Mahathir’s era.

“In the old days, the corruption was smaller. If an Umno branch leader did not get a taxi permit, he would dissolve his branch. Now many Umno leaders are busy looking for big projects. That’s the success of the NEP (New Economic Policy),” he laughs.

More seriously, his book concludes, “Umno has jeopardised its image with power grabbing, money politics, bribery and excessive racism by certain leaders.... Umno must reform or I fear the End of the Dream (for the party) will really happen.”

American healthcare - Sicko

Muslims gather at Capitol Hill, condemn prejudice

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:26:56 GMT | PressTV

Thousands of Muslim men and women have gathered outside Capitol Hill to hold a prayer meeting and demonstrate against prejudice against Islam.

On Friday, the crowd prayed on lawns outside the building in an event organized by the Dar-ul-Islam Elisabeth mosque, in northeastern New Jersey.

"In addition to being a historic event I think it's just a matter of all the Muslims coming together in one location to perform what is our obligation for the Friday prayer," said one of the participants Lonnie Shabazz.

"The message was clear. I think the message basically was to let the American public know that all the stigmas that are attached to Muslims are not true." On their website, the organizers, who had been hoping to attract some 5,000 people, said that they wanted "to manifest Islam's majestic spiritual principals as revealed by Allah to our beloved Prophet."

Obama Chairs UN Summit on Disarmament.

Climate Week New York Sept 2009/