A Frenzy of Inaction : Container Ships at Anchorage
"This is probably the thing that is keeping me up most of the time."
"We have some nice live bands from time to time. Hopefully we can keep the crew happy with some barbecues, some team events like watching movies together, or playing some sports."
"If you like to have a beer, it's possible. Normally we have it on stock and you can have it."
"You, of course, always have to be ready for emergencies, so there cannot be any excessive stuff."
Captain Markus Grote, Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hamburg, Germany-based
Container ships wait outside the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach waiting to unload on Oct. 13, 2021. Carolyn Cole | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
There are at least 21 crew members on most ocean-going container carriers counting the officers. Routine chores such as maintaining equipment, keeping cargo secure and decks tidy see crew members consume their activities routinely, while at sea en route to a destination. The officers rotate on eight-hour watches and monitor instruments and radio traffic.
Busier days are those when the ship is in port, unloading containers and loading up others. This is when the crew works as a team, everyone knowing his job, meshing with the activities of their shipmates forming the crew. It's when critical paperwork is completed, along with the restocking of supplies and attention given to undertaking extensive mechanical fixes.
When a container ship is forced by conditions to sit at anchor awaiting their turn to approach the docks to unload and alternately load up, it is a time of inaction; waiting, boredom, plummeting morale. Remaining at anchorage for weeks at a time is psychologically debilitating; they're stuck, neither underway nor at port -- simply waiting, waiting...
If the ship happens to be anchored close enough to shore they're enabled to access local communication networks so they can call family and friends, or even order something to be delivered. Otherwise, nothing of the kind is possible, given the cancellation of shore leave opportunities in this time of pandemic travel restrictions.
As far as the eye can
see cargo trucks wait in long lines to enter The Port of Los Angeles as
the port is set to begin operating around the clock on Wednesday, Oct.
13, 2021 in San Pedro, CA.
Jason Armond | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
At anchor regular maintenance must continue, deck watches staffed. Some relief from the sameness is a necessity to keep minds engaged and fend off dissatisfaction and depression. In those circumstances a concerned captain, worried over the mindset of his crew, thinks of ways to lift the prevailing sullen mood of off-duty crew. Basketball, video games, table tennis or use of the pool and gyms on board for those ships with these amenities, are all on call
In other ways, crew members find ways to stimulate themselves. Picking up a guitar or drums, forming bands with on-board colleagues. Some choose the ever-popular karaoke as a relief mechanism. The captain of these container ships has plenty on his mind; the necessity to deliver cargo, to take on cargo, to arrive as expected at their destination, to ensure that all goes well; he is answerable to the profit margin of the shipping company he represents.
There are about 400,000 merchant mariners anxious to take time off to return home, to relieve their mounting sense of seafarer fatigue. Container deliveries have been pressed of late, with the imposition of uncertainties and new rules surrounding the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19. Manpower shortages one issue, but another the shortage of shipping containers at a time the international community is trying to catch up with time and opportunities lost to the novel coronavirus's impact on business and critical deliveries from producer to consumers world-wide.
Ship crews are experiencing dizzying work swings from frenzied action to increasingly more idling time. Over 600 container ships were anchored recently awaiting the opportunity to enter ports at the traditionally busiest shipping ports in the world. Data from Seaexplorer.com and Swiss freight giant Kuchne+Nagel International AG speak of hold-ups and back-ups where the race to clear containers from ports to enable new shipments to take their place has stalled.
Roughly ten percent of the total container ships globally currently in service await the opportunity to unload. Some of them will remain at anchor waiting, waiting ... for weeks. Outside Los Angeles, North America's busiest port, ships wait an average of ovr 12 days at anchor to be allowed to pull into port. The same amount of time it would take them to navigate the Pacific from Asia.
"I
did not hear any particular apology to our country. to me, it's galling
to think someone who's not an American would know better than us what
kind of country we should have here and decide that you hate America so
much you're going to infiltrate our country and tear it down."
"In
the letter you submitted, you didn't necessarily inspire confidence
that you've changed to the point that there's no longer a threat of
violence from you."
"Nevertheless,
you have stated that all you want to do is go back to Canada and live a
normal life. We all hope that is something that will happen once you
serve this sentence."
"[...Conversations,
text exchanges and planning represented more than merely] wishes and
hopes and far-flung fantasies [of a pair of] wide-eyed neophytes."
"They were specific, serious and calculating in the actions they intended to perpetrate."
District Court Judge Theodore Chuang, Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.
Former
Manitoba army reservist Patrik Mathews has been sentenced to nine years
in prison for his involvement in what the FBI called a neo-Nazi plot to
start a race war in the United States.CBC
Nine
years in prison for former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik
Mathews, 28, for his role in a plot to exploit escalating U.S. social
tensions in the hopes of triggering a "race war", in the assessment of
the FBI. A resident of Beausejour in Manitoba, he excused himself for
his ill judgement when "I got involved with the wrong people".
As though the choice to connect himself with the white supremacist
group The Base was an incidental error for which he was not seriously at
fault. He had no idea, he claimed, of the depth and seriousness of
their intended actions.
Judge
Chuang, after reviewing all the evidence presented to him, and
carefully reading through the letter submitted by Patrik Mathews
exonerating himself and blaming a misunderstanding on his part, took due
consideration of both the defence and the prosecution positions on the
punishment to be meted out to the terror-by-accidental-affiliation
chastened man who was, he claimed, innocent of any intent to carry out
any acts of violence.
Apart
from the sentence of 9 years in prison for his lapse in judgement,
there is an additional penalty of three years of supervised release once
his prison term is completed. And when justice has been served, he will
be deported back to Canada. Both Matthews and his co-defenant, U.S.
army veteran Brian Mark Lemley Jr., pleaded guilty to weapons charges
associated with the plot to precipitate a clash between police and
thousands of heavily armed gun control protesters, in Richmond,
Virginia..
In August 2019, Brian Lemley and William Bilbrough attended a
training camp for neo-Nazi group The Base. Lemley is standing second
from left, holding a long gun in the air. Bilbrough is kneeling in the
centre while holding a blade. (U.S. Attorney detention memo)
The
defence had petitioned the court for location to a prison facility in
Minnesota so their client would be located closer to his family in
Manitoba. Originally, he informed the court he believed The Base was
committed to ideals that were less extreme, focusing on immigration
controls. He characterized the work of The Base as "horrifically and disastrously wrong", though it might have been seen by him to be good, clean fun at the time.
He
could have been given a sentence up to 25 years in prison, in
reflection of the "terrorism enhancement" provision requested by the
prosecution. On the other hand, the defense counsel argued a sentence of
less than three years, for after all the defendants' plan ultimately
was never carried out. Contrastingly, his crimes, prosecutors argued,
were serious and his motives even more so.
During a search of the apartment Mathews shared with one of
the co-accused, law enforcement agents found videos of Mathews saying
violent, anti-Semitic and racist things. (U.S. Attorney detention memo)
Court
had been presented with ample evidence of the plot unfolding, where the
two spoke in terms of killing federal officials, derailing trains and
poisoning water supplies; all part of a violent scheme to disrupt and
exploit political and social tensions in the hopes of triggering a race
war in the U.S. Another co-defendant, William Garfield Bilbrough IV,
also pleaded guilty to assisting Mathews to enter the U.S. illegally,
for which he was sentenced to five years in prison.
The
heavily incriminating evidence that came to light was gathered through
FBI wiretaps, "sneak-and-peek" warrants, and the cooperation of
undercover officers. As all too often happens in cases of this nature,
Patrik Mathews' father described his son as a man with a good heart but a
troubled soul, who had suffered as a child from being pushed around by
schoolyard bullies, resulting in an attitude of social alienation.
Mounties found this handwritten list of mass shootings when
they executed a search warrant at Mathews' Beausejour, Man., residence
in August 2019. The list included the year, number of people dead and
whether the shooter was on medication. (U.S. prosecution sentencing memorandum)
The Ramstein military base in Germany has become a makeshift camp for thousands of Afghans Getty Images
"They [Afghan civilians] really feel like the international community has not stood sufficiently with them."
"There can be all kinds of reasons for people to need to leave [Afghanistan]. But we're trying to assist them where they are."
"We're present in every province and two-thirds of the districts and have a number of partners with which we're working."
"So, we would obviously call on the neighbours to allow those people to be able to seek safety within their countries as well."
Kelly Clements, deputy UN High Commissioner for Refugees
A woman and child walk between the makeshift tents in Nawabad Farabi-ha
camp for internally displaced people in Mazar-e Sharif in northern
Afghanistan. UNHCR/Edris Lufti
The
international community is being chided once again by a representative
of the United Nations from an arm concerning itself with the plight of
the world's burgeoning refugee populations fleeing conflict, repression,
discrimination and outright violent hostility from the executive bodies
that govern various corrupt, autocratic, crime-ridden countries.
Including the latest to join a long string of persecuted people anxious
to escape what fate has ordained for them, Afghanistan.
Iran
and Pakistan require the sympathy of the world for their hard luck in
bordering Afghanistan. Destinations of desperation for Afghan citizens
anxious to escape the notorious and dangerous maladministration of the
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. For many, the loss of their fledgling
democratic status, despite endemic corruption, was far preferable to the
hardline Islamists who have restored their previous rule through
unrelentingly lethal attacks on government, its agents and agencies.
In
its previous iteration the Taliban gave haven to al-Qaeda, allowing it
the freedom of operation to plot a spectacularly atrocious series of
surprise attacks on the United States of America. A hideous attack that
spurred the invasion of Afghanistan and the hunting down of al-Qaeda and
its Taliban supporters. Even then, the sponsors, trainers, enablers and
funders of the Taliban gained the trust of the United States accepting
Pakistan's claims that it was a committed partner in combating
terrorism.
Sheltering
both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Pakistan's Interagency Intelligence
group conspired to destroy Afghanistan, even while Washington was
generously handing over millions to support the very military that
housed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in spitting distance from an elite
Pakistan military academy. Both Iran and Pakistan celebrated the return
of the Taliban to govern Afghanistan. A return which added fire to the
smouldering embers of impoverishment in a country where Islamic State,
al-Qaeda and the Taliban hunt down their opponents in constant orgies of
slaughter.
Little
wonder Afghan civilians are desperate to escape the clutches of the
Taliban; tribal/sectarian minorities are targeted by all three terrorist
groups. As are former government elites, government workers, and
Afghans who found employment as drivers, interpreters, kitchen staff and
other positions with the foreign troops stationed with the
NATO-U.S.-led mission to fend off the Taliban and help to incubate
democracy in yet another Muslim country.
That
great global conciliator, the United Nations, extends yet another
humanitarian mission to persuade the West of their obligations to those
less fortunate who in absolute fact either admire or venomously detest
Western values, among whom are those committed to the jihad of
destruction and death visited on the unIslamic world of vice and
corruption. That obligation first and foremost, is to help fund Iran and
Pakistan, to house and feed the new refugees seeking haven there. Which
of course, does not diminish the West's obligation to take in more
refugees themselves.
The
oil-rich countries of the Middle East; Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman,
Kuwait and Iraq for starters have limitless treasuries. Time for Qatar
in particular, Saudi Arabia as well, to step forward and fund their
brethren in religious devotion. For is it not so under Islam that there
is such a responsibility among Muslims to give aid and succor to
suffering co-religionists? All the more so that the bulk of the world's
refugees -- from the Middle East to Africa -- flee the violent threat of
Islamist terrorist groups pledging allegiance to jihad through
membership in Islamic State and al-Qaeda and their offshoots...
As
for the last dangerously chaotic airlifting efforts by Western nations
to bring desperate Afghans to safety in the West, tens of thousands
managed to escape during a harrowing week of hopes and expectations both
realized and dashed. Many managed to reach haven and security in Europe
and North America. Many more were left behind, with no time nor space
on aircraft to accommodate their hopes and aspirations to separate from
their country of birth for promising new lives. Take more, urges the
UNHCR.
The
failure through militant Islamism to secure futures for Muslims in
Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, in Africa where countries as diverse as Kenya,
Tanzania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Somalia and others see
ongoing deadly attacks by al-Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates, creates
more bedlam, more refugees, and countries suffering the ravages of war
and the inability to feed their populations. Islam has become a tired
and sick theology, no longer what the faithful proudly claim it to be, a
religion of peace.
"It is our assessment that the Taliban and ISIS-K are mortal enemies."
"So theTaliban is highly motivated to go after ISIS-K. Their ability to do so, I think, is to be determined."
"We need to be vigilant in disrupting that [Islamic State and al-Qaeda becoming capable of striking the United States]."
Colin Kahl, U.S. Undersecretary of Defence for Policy
A man stands near the scene of a blast in Kabul. EPA
According to an assessment by the American intelligence community, Islamic State in Afghanistan could reach capability to enable them to attack the United States in as little time as six months from the present. The intention to launch attacks from Afghanistan into the West and particularly America is there, according to senior Pentagon official, Colin Kahl.
Clearly, Afghanistan is in perilous shape, its leadership has reverted to the Taliban under the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which has promised the world and specifically the U.S. that the country would not again become a vector of Islamist terrorist launches outside the country. National security concerns are more valid now than ever, since the peremptory exit of the U.S. military from the impoverished country led by an Islamist faction whose misrule and penchant for violence is little different from other terrorist groups.
Ostensibly enemies of Islamic State, the Taliban appear to have made an effort to impose law and order with the departure of the U.S. and other NATO-aligned states, leaving Afghans to fend for themselves under the Taliban which has finally realized its goal of return to governance. A return that has heralded a mad rush of panicked Afghan civilians to leave the country where Taliban forces have picked up their assaults against minority groups.
The ruling group which had launched violent attacks against the 'foreign invaders' as well as Afghans who rebelled against their harsh rule now seek out the hiding places of former government elite, government workers and Afghans who had aligned their futures with that of the Republic of Afghanistan's fledgling democratic order, albeit flush with traditional corruption.
A funeral for victims of a landmine in Taliban controlled territory EPA
The sister terrorist groups of al-Qaeda and Islamic State feel comfortable in Afghanistan which has become yet another natural home of Islamist terrorist groups. Islamic State has targeted minority Shiite Afghans in bombings. It has also made it clear that it has the utmost contempt for the Taliban's style of Islam and the administration of sharia, as being feeble and unIslamic; fiercely brutal it may be, but the Islamic State glories in gore to an absolute state.
It was Mr. Kahl's estimate that a "cadre of a few thousand" fighters comprise the numbers faithful to Islamic State. Without making mention, it would appear, of the ongoing recruitment in the West and the establishment of other groups loyal to Islamic State throughout Africa. Yet Mr. Kahl's feeling is that a larger threat than Islamic State looms in the future of the U.S., through al-Qaeda's plans to continue where it left off with the death of its leader bin Laden.
It might take al-Qaeda "a year or two" to fully regenerate its capacity to carry out future attacks outside Afghanistan with the United States its end goal, he asserts. As a result, the U.S. must set its goal on disrupting the groups intent on assaulting the United States, to ensure they fail to reach the capability of striking within the country as they infamously did in 2001.
"Children are going to die. People are going to starve. Things are going to get a lot worse."
"I
don't know how you don't have millions of people, and especially
children, dying at the rate we are going, with the lack of funding and
the collapsing of the economy."
"What
we are predicting is coming true much faster than we anticipated. Kabul
fell faster than anybody anticipated and the economy is falling faster
than that."
"You've got to unfreeze these funds [repurposing development assistance to humanitarian aid] so people can survive."
David Beasley, executive director, World Food Program
Every day brings labourers looking for work - but there is little to go round
In
the most sorrowful of sinister warnings, it has begun; children are
dying and more will follow. Eight orphaned children, all under the age
of ten, whose parents had died and who were left to fend for themselves,
dependent on handouts from neighbours and strangers in a country where
food is scarce and people are facing starvation, did die of starvation.
Neglected, no one to be concerned for their welfare, they were simply
unable to cope with the challenge of finding enough food somewhere to
sustain their existence.
This
happened in the capital city of Afghanistan. An estimated fifty percent
of the population of poverty-wrenched Afghanistan now face food
shortages. A serious situation is becoming utterly dire. The country
looms on the brink of experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in the
world. Similar warnings are issued by the United Nations from time to
time; starvation in Somalia, in Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Liberia, Haiti, Central African Republic, and the list goes on.
Tribal
and sectarian conflict, internal and external challenges leading to war
and persecution. Where there is war, farmers cannot cultivate their
fields. Where there is conflict, people flee their towns and villages,
becoming homeless and refugees, finding both shelter and food and
welcome hard to come by. A newly-impoverished Afghanistan, victimized by
corruption, by ethnic, clan and sectarian violence, now the Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan, has seen international funding dry up,
humanitarian charity unwilling to fund the Taliban.
Going to bed hungry is the new reality in a country that has seen decades of war
Drought,
war and poverty have accompanied the rise to power of the Taliban;
endemic, now acute. The eight dead children left on their own to
survive, failed to and their bodies were found in West Kabul according
to local leaders. Suffering from a tumour their bedridden father had
died, and their mother, with heart disease soon followed their father in
death, explained local cleric Mohammad Ali Bamiani. Neighbours
occasionally brought them bread and water; it was their landlord who
found the bodies.
The
new Taliban administration in Afghanistan, nurtured by Pakistan,
accepted by its near neighbours has been blacklisted from accessing
overseas-located assets. Charitable funding meant to aid in
reconstruction and development would be better used, suggested the World
Food Program head, by transforming its purpose to feeding the hungry in
Afghanistan. Who now resort to the desperate measures of selling
anything they own to obtain food.
To
even hope to begin minimally feeding the 23 million food-vulnerable
population as winter approaches, the UN food agency requires $220
million each month. Aid groups urge wealthy nations to swallow their
distaste in dealing with a violently aggressive Islamist group by
diplomatic engagement in hopes of preventing a social/economic collapse
that could launch yet another catastrophic crisis of mass migration.
Most Afghans are now trying to feed themselves and their children after the economy collapsed
"All embassies are welcome, as long as they do not interfere in Iraqi affairs and government formation. Iraq is for Iraqis only."
"From now on, arms must be restricted in the hands of the state. The use of weapons shall be prevented outside of the state's framework."
"It is time for the people to live in peace, without occupation, terrorism, militias, kidnapping and fear."
Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraqi cleric, political leader
"No country wants forces that are stronger than its army."
"That [2,000 U.S.forces] is labeling or classifying the troops as trainers and not fighters [by mutual agreement with Washington and Baghdad]."
"The decision should be revisited again and decided by [Iraq's] Parliament and the government."
Dhia al-Assadi, al-Sadr aide
Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on a billboard in Baghdad's Sadr City
district - a stronghold of his movement. June 21, 2021. REUTERS/Ahmed
Saad
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's father lived in Iran for decades, exiled from his native Iraq during the Sunni minority reign of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, when the country's Shiite population was the underdog. His son returned to his native Iraq in opposition to the presence of U.S. and allied troops with the invasion of the country ostensibly for the purpose of neutering it from the 'weapons of mass destruction' amassed by Saddam, threatening regional stability. At a time when the-then U.S. administration contended there were links between Iraq and al-Qaeda.
With that invasion ancient animosities were unleashed, leading to Sunni and Shiite groups launching covert night-time attacks in neghbourhoods specific to each of the major branches of Islam leading to mass slaughters. The Shiite cleric played no part in these sectarian conflicts; instead he launched a militia to target the presence of U.S. troops in the country which often led to deadly clashes. U.S. forces ended up considering the Mahdi Army militia battling them as serious an issue as their clashes with al-Qaeda.
The U.S. forces planned to assassinate the Shiite cleric as a threat to their presence in Iraq, but never managed to succeed. Now that Iraq is finally settling down with a new government, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Iraq is struggling to separate its sovereignty from Iranian interference. Iranian Shiite militias which roamed Iraq as Iranian-backed functionaries like Lebanon's Hezbollah are now non-grata.
As a result of the evolving political situation in Iraq, Muqtada al-Sadr's political aims have been rewarded by an electorate that views him as a trusted Iraqi patriot with no interest in establishing himself as a commanding power, but rather an influence in establishing a working government aspiring toward the country's future prosperity and security. Gaining 73 seats in the national Parliament, the Sadrists have the largest single bloc in the 329-seat Parliament.
In a recent speech he referenced Iranian-backed militias, challenging in power and numbers the country's official security forces, that will be facing disarming any militias not under government control, including his own militia. Iran's proxy militia Hezbollah in Lebanon is more powerful, better armed than Lebanon's national military, answering to no one but Iranian orders. An obvious contraindication to Iraq's plans to stabilize and ensure its future independence and development prospects.
Although initially invited by Baghdad to have its troops remain in Iraq, the U.S. has agreed on withdrawal of all its combat troops by year's end, those currently deployed as trainers to remain for the time being. The former defender of the Shiite majority in Iraq, Mr. al-Sadr now is making his peace with the country's Sunni population who once comprised the elite, the politics, the military in the country, under Saddam Hussein.
Now, Christians, Kurds, Sunnis and other minorities are to be recognized as equal members of Iraqi society. Outreach to other Middle Eastern nations led by Sunni majorities is meant to ultimately result in a change in the country's once-dysfunctional political system which highlighted party loyalty with sectarian divisions reflecting senior government appointments.
Sadrists are poised to be the biggest winners in elections to Iraq’s
parliament (above) in October. Iraqi Parliament Media Office/Handout via
REUTERS
"Heavily armed bandits are no longer satisfied with current abuses, racketeering, threats and kidnappings for ransom."
"Now, criminals break into village homes at night, attack families and rape women."
Petition for police action
"The motive behind the surge in kidnapping for us is a financial one."
"The gangs need money to buy ammunition, to get weapons, to be able to function."
Center for Analysis and Research for Human Rights, Port-au-Prince
"It's madness -- you try to work for the country, to build something, provide jobs, and they do this to you."
"Where is this going? Where is this country going? It's a total mess."
42-year-old businessman
A street vendor walks past tires set fire at a closed gas
station as part of a protest against fuel shortages in Port-au-Prince on
Thursday. (Joseph Odelyn/The Associated Press)
Safety
and security of the person in Haiti? The country was always rife with
criminality and corruption but now it is an absolute basket case of a
crime wave that knows no boundaries. Violence is surging across the
country from its capital to its rural areas where entire towns have been
taken over by criminal gangs, and the residents have fled in terror.
In
Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, gangs are estimated to control about
half of the city. One day alone this month saw gangs shoot at a school
bus in the capital with five people injured, and another group of
criminals hijacked a public bus. It made international news, however,
when one of Haiti's most ambitiously notorious gangs kidnapped a group
of 17 social workers with the Christian Aid Ministries.
This
is a country economically bankrupt. International aid has always
reached Haiti but the country's needs are now so great such aid is no
longer even a stop-gap. There are shortages of everything; from fuel to
basic foodstuffs and medical supplies. People are desperate for relief,
many are on the brink of starvation, and violent protests against
government inaction take place on the streets. There is no end in sight
for the country's misery.
The
businessman who was bewailing the state of lawlessness in his country
had himself been kidnapped on his way home from work, in a bullet-proof
car. In fear of reprisals, he used only his first name, Norman, in
describing his kidnapping where he went unfed for the first four days of
his captivity when children who appeared to him no older than ten, beat
him with machete handles or gun butts.
Finally
released after 12 days when $70,000 in ransom was offered, a
considerable reduction from the $5 million the gang demanded to spare
his life, he speaks of at least ten others he knows who were snatched by
gangs demanding ransom be paid, among them his mother. The group
associated with the Chrisian Aid Ministries were on a visit to an
orphanage outside Port-au-Prince.
A protester threatens to throw stones at motorists trying to
pass a road block set by anti-government demonstrators in
Port-au-Prince on Thursday. (Odelyn Joseph/The Associated Press)
The
shock assassination of President Jovenel Moise appeared to unleash the
country's security as its politics disintegrated, seemingly leaving no
one in charge. In Croix-des-Bouquets, a suburb of the capital, the
criminal gang known as 400 Mawozo, the same gang that kidnapped the
sixteen Americans and single Canadian in the latest bold escapade
demanding ransom, controls the town.
Shopkeepers
on the town's main street were kidnapped and ordered to sell their
possessions to pay off the ransom demanded by 400 Mawozo. As soon as
they were able, they all fled to safety elsewhere, but for the fact
there is no 'elsewhere' where there is safety in the impoverished
country where criminality is rampant and the population cowers in fear,
unable to go to work, to send their children to school.
Gang
members recruit local children, encouraging youths to beat people as
part of their training, with the intention of producing a more violent
generation of gang members. Churches have become frequent targets,
priests kidnapped while addressing their congregations, even when a
church ceremony is being streamed live on Facebook.
Seven
Catholic clergy, five Haitian, two French were among ten people
kidnapped in Croix-des-Bouquets by the 400-Mawozo gang in April;
eventually released once ransom was paid, but unlikely to have been the
$1 million demanded by the gang. The ransom demanded for the 17
kidnapped aid workers is $1 million for each to be released, a total of
$17 million. One priest whose ransom had been paid, has never been
released.
People protest for the release of kidnapped missionaries in Titanyen, north of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Tuesday. (Joseph Odelyn/The Associated Press)
“The designation decisions published by the National Bureau for Counter
Terror Financing of Israel list extremely vague or irrelevant reasons,
including entirely peaceful and legitimate activities such as provision
of legal aid and 'promotion of steps against Israel in the international
arena'."
UN Human Rights Office, Ramallah
"The Israeli government did not give us advance warning [that the Palestinian groups would be blacklisted'."
"We believe respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and a
strong civil society are critically important to responsible and
responsive governance."
Ned Price, spokesman, U.S. State Department
"Those organizations [six named Palestinian NGOs] were active under the
cover of civil society organizations, but in practice belong and
constitute an arm of the [PFLP: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] leadership, the main activity of which
is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel."
"The security organizations will continue to
act and intensify the strikes against terrorism and the terrorist
infrastructure everywhere, and by all means."
"I call on the
countries of the world and international organizations to assist in
this fight and to avoid contact with companies and organizations that
supply materials to terrorism."
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz
"Those funds [received from EU member states and the United Nations] served the Popular Front for
payments to security prisoners’ families and martyrs, wages for
activists, enlistment of activists, promotion of terror activity,
promotion of the Popular Front activity in Jerusalem, and distribution
of the organization’s messages and ideology."
Israel’s
Ministry of Defense
"[The announcement by the Israeli government] confirms what our research has shown for years—this time six
Palestinian NGOs were designated as terrorist organizations as part of
the PFLP network."
"All are funded by European [governments] and deeply
involved in political warfare against Israel."
NGO Monitor, watchdog group tracking anti-Israel nonprofits
PFLP terrorists Abdul Razeq Farraj (l) and
Ubai Aboudi (r) at Netherlands Representative Office in Ramallah, Feb.
2, 2017. (Facebook)
Now
that's unexpected, is it not? Israeli intelligence sources identify the
background commitment of ostensible charitable and human rights
organizations for the Palestinian cause, a cause dedicated to ultimately
succeeding in demolishing the presence of the Jewish state to enable
Palestinians to claim 'all clear' in their assumption of creating a
Palestinian state "from the river to the sea". The culmination of their
public relations campaigns capturing Western support claiming and
finally attaining the sovereign status on the entire area occupied by
Israel, that tiny sliver of land representing a mere portion of Judean
geographic heritage.
On
Friday, Israel's Defense Minister Benny Gantz captured immediate
international attention -- mostly from the sources that so generously
fund the Palestinian Authority's corrupt regime with its 'pay for slay'
program, glorifying the exploits of deadly attacks against Jews by
Palestinian 'martyrs' exemplifying commitment to 'resistance' against
the 'occupier', on territory that the State of Israel through its
military defence against Arab states' attack in 1967 gained. And where
all other countries in the world once success in defence is achieved,
gains are absorbed, where Israel is concerned this is unacceptable.
Palestinian
victimization is a narrative beloved of Israel's critics, and they are
legion. Israel's willingness in one successive government after another
to come to a bargaining table to make concessions for peace made no
inroads whatever in the Palestinian mind, incited by leaders who
committed to aggravated assault against Jews in their midst, vowing
never to live among Jews, while Palestinian Arabs who remained on their
land with the re-creation of the State of Israel do live among Jews, as
citizens of the country, unwilling to live under PA or Hamas rule in the
West Bank or Gaza, but resentful regardless.
The
European Union, the United Nations, the United States and Canada among
others sanctimoniously fund the Palestinian 'refugees' living in the
West Bank and Gaza, knowing full well, proof amply given, that there is
no end to corruption, to incitement of violence against Israel; that
celebration of the martyrs to the 'cause' will see their families given
monthly financial awards, street and social center naming ceremonies.
That school curricula, television programs and songs lionize 'martyrs'
to inspire children to hate and to aspire toward vengeance.
Palestinian celebrate during a rally marking the 46th anniversary of the
founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP),
in Gaza City, 7 December 2013. (Emad Nassar/Flash90)
Israel
is called to account when it identifies and designates the funding
connection between Palestinian charities and Palestinian terrorist
groups. Any group can identify themselves as human rights organizations,
groups whose specific aim is to demonize the real victims of
Palestinian violence. Groups that excel in currying favour with western
financial granting bodies who legitimize them, and continue portraying
themselves as victims of violence while supporting those who mete out
violence to Israel's civilian populations.
Defense
Minister Benny Gantz announced on Friday that six named
civil society groups have been designated terror organizations,
on the basis of their having effectively operated as enablers for the
Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group which most European
and North American countries list as a terrorist group. A backlash took
no time in response, with the European Union, the
Palestinian Authority, progressive Democrats, US Jewish groups, and
international human rights organizations expressing outraged criticism.
"[The]
declared organizations received large sums of money from European
countries and international organizations, using a variety of forgery
and deceit", stated the Israeli defence ministry,
while pointing out the funding supported activities of the PFLP who even
though declared a terrorist group in many western countries is still
viewed sympathetically, while at the same time European funding agencies
balk at being tangentially linked with funding their activities. To
accept Israel's findings is to proclaim themselves guilty.
Pro-Palestinian protesters march outside the White House, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2021 in Washington. (AP/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
And
while not denying ties to the six groups identified by Israel as
funneling funds to the PFLP, Kayed Al Ghoul, an official with the group,
said they maintain relations with civil society organizations across
the West Bank and Gaza: "It
is part of the rough battle Israel is launching against the Palestinian
people and against civil society groups, in order to exhaust them",
he maintained. And he should know; it is part of the violent battle the
PFLP launches against Israel in hopes of exhausting its will to
survive.
Morbid Distaste Over Medical Advance in Xenografting ...?
"...But
then I thought, 'Well, why not use someone who is now dead due to brain
death, and we know they're dead' -- that's absolutely clear. We could
minimize the risk to the first human that we're really going to try to
transplant."
"I asked our docs, could you learn from this? And they said, you're right. We could."
"The
family was very enthusiastic. I certainly would not want to be doing it
without the family saying, 'This is something my loved one would want
to do, and we fully support it."
"The
answer is, they are really dead, and you can do experiments because we
have the means artificially to keep major body organs and cells working
even when the person has passed away."
Arthur Caplan, medical ethicist, NYU Langone Health, New York City
"If the public gets the impression that organ donation could lead to something like this, people may find this very disturbing."
"There
are many people in our society that would not consider someone that is
brain-dead and still with a heartbeat and perfusing and blood flowing as
being completely dead."
"But I also see the potential is there to save a lot of lives if it were successful."
"Some
people would say this is as disrespectful of the dead as anything can
be and others would say it's not. I think the yuck factor -- I'm using a
very unscientific term here -- would be quite high with the public."
Kerry Bowman, medical ethicist, Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto
A genetically engineered pig kidney appears healthy during a transplant
operation at NYU Langone in New York, US, in this undated handout photo.
— Reuters
There
are laws and regulations that cover ethics in medical practise in
specific focus on the living. None exist of a similar nature to govern
research on humans that apply to the brain-dead. People are urged to
sign organ-donor cards, permitting their organs on death to be harvested
and used for human organ transplant, a vital life-saving program that
gives new meaning to 'saving a life'. But there are never sufficient
numbers of volunteered organs to supply the urgent needs of people
awaiting organ transplant and many die during that agonizing wait
period.
The
question being raised is whether those same people who so generously
see their organs being used to extend the lives of other seriously ill
people, could ever foresee and be comfortable with the prospect that
their own dead body might be maintained in an organ-functioning state
despite their having departed that body, for research and experimental
purposes. Whether they might differentiate 'saving a life' with their
organs used in desperate medical straits, or their entire body and its
in situ organs being used to advance medical science.
In
September at NYU Langone, surgeons incised the upper leg of a
brain-dead woman to attach a pig kidney to her blood vessels. An
experiment in the potential of using a genetically modified pig in lieu
of a human organ to extend a life when a person's natural kidneys stop
functioning. Transplanting an organ from another species -- even so a
pig whose genetics are so close to that of humans -- would normally
result in the body's immune system instantly rejecting the intruder
organ and death would quickly follow.
In
this case, the pig's genetic makeup had been altered to exclude a
triggering sugar molecule, called alpha-gal to prevent rejection. It
took three days while the kidney was attached to the brain-dead
subject's blood vessels where researchers had access to it outside the
body, and no "hyper-acute" rejection occurred. Maintained on a
ventilator for 54 hours, surgeons watching for symptoms of rejection.
The kidney functioned like a normal human kidney, producing urine,
cleansing blood.
A
surgical team at the hospital in New York examined a pig kidney
attached to the body of a brain-dead recipient for any signs of
rejection. Credit...Joe Carrotta/N.Y.U. Langone Health, via Associated Press
Dr.Caplan's
theory that the use of a brain-dead body for a brief experiment in pig
organ functionality transplanted into a human body without rejection
resulting, which he discussed at length and intimately with surgeons at
his medical facility proved a success. Dr.Caplan published a paper in
2019 with a colleague, who is an attorney and medical ethicist, along
with other members of the NYU Medical Ethics Working Group on Research
on the Recently Deceased.
Writing that the procedure "can seem frightening or abhorrent", raising complex ethical challenges "It
is appropriate for experimentation to be done in humans due to the
potential for cross-species complications, if they were to be studied in
other animals." The understanding that for some
people transplanting animal organs into people is not an agreeable
prospect, aside from the fact that some people find it difficult to
accept that brain death equals total body/brain death.
Yet
we eat pigs as part of our normal diets. We are what we eat. In
consuming animals something of them is integrated within ourselves; we
are sustained physically by ending their lives to continue ours.
Materials derived from pigs have long been used in furthering human
life, from the production of insulin to heart valve replacements, the
choice of which can be pig tissues or carbon-material valves. Biological
or mechanical heart valve replacement...
"NATO faces the most complex security environment since the end of the
Cold War. Russia's behaviour remains assertive and destabilising, and
terrorism continues to represent a global security challenge and a
threat to stability. At the same time, the rise of China is shifting the
global balance of power, with implications for the Alliance's security,
values and way of life. Growing global uncertainty, more sophisticated
and disruptive cyber and hybrid threats, and exponential technological
change are having a substantial impact on the Alliance."
"Russia's aggressive actions, including the threat and use of force to
attain political goals, challenge the Alliance and undermine
Euro-Atlantic security and the rules-based international order. Russia
has become more assertive with its illegal and illegitimate annexation
of Crimea (2014), the destabilisation of eastern Ukraine, its military
build-up close to NATO's borders, its hybrid actions, including
disinformation campaigns, and its malicious cyber activities."
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
"It has not been more difficult since the end of the Cold War."
"We still have avenues and channels for communications with Russia,
but we regret the Russian decision to close the two NATO offices in
Moscow, and to also stop their activity at that NATO mission here at
NATO."
"NATO's approach to Russia remains the same as before, meaning
credible deterrence and defense, combined with efforts to have a
meaningful dialogue with Russia."
Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General, NATO
"This isn't new behavior [on Moscow's part]."
"This is the way of deterrence [the 30-member NATO agreed-upon plan].".
"And this is being adapted to the current behavior of Russia -- and
we are seeing violations particularly of the air space over the Baltic
states, but also increasing incursions over the Black Sea."
German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
The
Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin have long been placed on
notice. That occurred when Russian troops violated Georgia's sovereign
border and facilitated two breakaway provinces to declare their
intentions and re-occurred when ethnic Russian Ukrainians in eastern
Ukraine declared their independence from Kyiv and the reassignment of
allegiance to the Russian Federation. 'Invisible' Russian troops were
there to help and encourage them.
And
when Russia appropriated the Crimean Peninsula, annexing it as an
integral, traditional, historical part of Russia's beating heart, NATO
called on its members to pledge their participation -- more symbolic
than conflict-ready -- in troops to be stationed in the near-abroad of
former Soviet satellites to ensure the Kremlin understood the message,
loud and clear. NATO on the periphery of Russian geography, giving
assurances to concerned Baltic states.
And
now a new master plan to defend eastern Europe against potential
attacks on presumed multiple fronts. Moscow issuing territorial threats
on land, sea and air, a repetition of Beijing's behaviour in the South
China Sea, the Himalaya, its contesting of disputed geographic claims
with its neighbours. One focus at a time. The strategy's purpose is in
preparation for a presumed attack, simultaneously in the Baltic and
Black Sea regions by a nuclear-armed, belligerent, former world power.
"We continue to strengthen our alliance with better and modernized plans",
NATO's Jens Stoltenberg assured Europe, with an added approval of a
fund for the development of new digital technologies, in a world where
cyber attacks are increasingly becoming the new and preferred mode of
intimidation, threat and cyber-war. (Think Estonia) Strictly
proactive, preventive, not in reaction necessarily to a presumed
near-pending conflict by a Russia which denies intentions of any
aggression, accusing NATO itself of fomenting a destabilizing
atmosphere.
Uran-9 combat unmanned ground vehicle. Image: Vitaly V. Kuzmin/vitalykuzmin.net
The Concept for Deterrence and Defence in the Euro-Atlantic Area,
the new strategic master plan, has the approval of European diplomats
to NATO who agree that its strategic implementation is a requirement in
the face of Russian development of advanced weapons systems, while
deploying troops closer to the borders of NATO's allies. A
nervous-making gesture if any were needed, to validate the necessity of
such a deterrent plan-of-action.
More
detailed regional plans will be formulated by the final days of 2022,
according to an American official, where NATO will determine what
further weapons are required and how best its forces are to be
positioned. Russia amassed a staggering 100,000 troops on Ukraine's
border in May, simulating an invasion scenario, a theatrical tease with
sinister overtones. New combat robots were deployed in military drills
in September with Belarus, further alarming the Baltic states.
The
Kremlin's determination in advancing Soviet military space systems
could have the potential to attack orbiting satellites as it develops
artificial intelligence technologies that could disrupt allied command
systems. In 2018 "super weapons" were unveiled, including
nuclear-capable hypersonic cruise missiles capable of evading
early-warning systems. Provocative, intimidating, assertive and needful
of responsive recognition.
"Russia is pursuing the incremental integration of asymmetric
force-multiplier technologies into its established and legacy weapons
systems. Meanwhile, the defence industry is developing new systems and
capabilities in military robotics and has successfully integrated
unmanned vehicles, particularly aerial drones, into its military
operations. In the space sector, Russia is pursuing the development of
capabilities able to potentially counter and disrupt an adversary’s
satellite operations. Finally, AI technologies are being developed with a
view to the disruption of Western command and control systems and
communication facilities, as well as the establishment of information
superiority."
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the World Community
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the World Community
"The Panjwaii people, they suffered a lot from the war and
drought."
"With
the help of Allah, our God, we will provide good security when you
bring some aid to the people. And you can return back to your home
without any suffering."
"As you suffered from the Afghanistan war, we suffered too. In the future, do not attack our
land, our nation; don't use drones on our land."
"There is no
security threat. The only problem we have is that the
international community is not recognizing Afghanistan."
Syfe Rahman Syfm new district chief, Panjwaii District Centre
Well,
of course the international community recognizes Afghanistan. The
Afghanistan that was called the Republic of Afghanistan, when
Afghan-style democratic elections took place to elect government
officials, despite the corruption rife in every aspect of life in the
country; traditional and ongoing. It is the Afghanistan now ruled by the
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, by the Taliban that fails to receive
official international recognition. But the Taliban leadership feels
empowered to insist on international support for their Islamist Emirate.
Is a transition
period of two months long enough to review the actions of the Taliban to
conclude what their rule as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will
look like? Resemble their previous time in power when anything remotely
resembling freedom for Afghans from the shackles of Islamist sharia was
strictly forbidden? When hospitals that treated men could not treat
women who had their own assigned hospitals where only females themselves
garbed in head-to-toe burqas could examine and treat women and girls?
When music and parties were forbidden?
Where
girls were not permitted to gain an education? When men whose beards
were merely suggestive rated public beatings? When women improperly
garbed in public and an inch of bare skin on ankle or a wrist could be
seen merited a lashing? When women and girls had to be accompanied
outside their homes by male relatives?
When
so much as a greeting between a woman and man not of the same family
was forbidden. When the carnal sin of physical contact between the sexes
could rate a prison sentence. When extramarital affairs could guarantee
public stoning and death? When women were expected to remain in their
houses, forbidden to work outside the home. Where girls as young as ten
were considered old enough to 'marry' Taliban fighters? That
Afghanistan.
The
Taliban are in power in Kandahar province, where former Taliban fighters are now in government, are on a mission
to restore international help under the new
regime. CBC
In
August, the Taliban stormed the countryside, then the cities as the
Afghan military and national police scattered before their onslaught. As
they neared Kabul, the government suddenly melted away. Knowing they
were slated to be hunted down, imprisoned or killed. Government
employees in all government departments would be sought out through
house-to-house searches and penalties meted out to them. Imprisonment,
death. Of course when the Trump administration negotiated with Taliban
spokesmen in Doha, Qatar promises were extracted in exchange for a
U.S./NATO withdrawal.
A
withdrawal badly wanted by both sides. The U.S. and other foreign
troops to finally wash their hands of a protracted unwinnable war
against a pathology of theistic conquest. The Taliban yearning to see
the last of U.S. troops so they could get on with their mission
unimpeded by the presence of foreign troops whose fixation on human
rights was so infuriatingly irritating. August 15 marked the end of the
Republic of Afghanistan, and the culmination of American shame.
Pakistan
exulted along with the Taliban, for of course the Taliban is their
creature; the bulwark against India's possible presence in Afghanistan.
As was Syria in Lebanon, so is Pakistan in Afghanistan. Iran benefits,
China benefits, Russia benefits as long as the Taliban, as warned and
acquiesced keep their terrorist adversaries and partners within
Afghanistan, from Islamic State in Khoristan to al-Qaeda, and the
Islamist Uyghurs.
"I am particularly alarmed to see promises made to Afghan women and girls by the Taliban being broken",
mourned U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Did he really and
truly expect otherwise? The 38 million Afghans now living under Taliban
rule expected nothing else; certainly the country's women dreaded the
transition, swift and brutal and now it is their future. Teen girls who
hoped to continue their education now sit at home.
Social/cultural/religious hostages.
As
for the promise to the U.S. negotiators, primarily the splendid choice
of Zalmay Khalilzad who assured the Biden administration that a swift
Taliban takeover of the country in the sudden absence of U.S. troops
wouldn't occur: "I don't believe it's a likely scenario",
well, surprise, surprise. And nor would the promise by the Taliban to
the U.S. that it would form an inclusive government representing the
interests of all Afghans by the Pashtun-majority Taliban take place
since thousands of Hazara families were driven from Daikundi, Helmand
and Kandahar in bloody ethnic-cleansing operations.
Women at the Panjwaii District Centre try to appeal to a
Sharia court to solve their problems. The Taliban says it will solve
disputes using a strict interpretation of Sharia law. The women don't
appear to have secured a hearing. (Ellen Mauro/CBC)
"The international order now, it's just might makes right."
"If
you have power nobody is going to stop you from doing anything. If we
don't deal with the Taliban, if we sanction them, they don't really
care. If we stop their officials from visiting the U.S., be it for
education or trade or other opportunities, there is China. There is
Russia. They don't care."
"Afghans
now are most concerned with just having food on the table and a roof
over their heads, with the basic necessities of life."
"That is how things are. Might makes right."
Irfan Yar, managing director, Afghanistan Security Institute, Ottawa, Canada
De
facto diplomatic recognition of the Islamic Emirate has been extended
by China, Iran and Russia. The Biden administration announced it was
prepared to permit American aid agencies and private groups to resume
sending food and medicine to Afghanistan. Not providing it directly to
the Taliban of course, they reassure themselves; it's meant for the
suffering Afghan people. And they are suffering. Mass starvation looms,
the UN World Food Program warns.
Figures
post that 97 percent of the population is facing poverty. Close to half
of the population is reliant on humanitarian aid, according to the UN
Development program. And so, the West, through the G20, the United
States and the European Union have resigned themselves to engaging with
the Taliban albeit planning to withhold diplomatic recognition. That's a
neat trick.
In
meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusogin the Taliban
foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, a sanctioned UN-designated terrorist
-- gained NATO-member Turkey's comradely gesture in urging UN member
states to support the Taliban.
The Panjwaii District Centre was opened by Canada in 2009,
part of economic development in Panjwaii. Today it's headquarters for
the Taliban district office, Sharia court and adjacent to the former
military-operations centre for Canada, the U.S. and Afghan forces. (Susan Ormiston/CBC)
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
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