Friday, September 4, 2009
USA, Wall Street, Petrole, Prix stable autour des 68 dollars
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Mission beendet - Erfolgreicher Online-CheckIn
24h vor Abflug ist der Online Check-In auf ba.com geöffnet. Zitter-bibber… hoffe es stürzt nix ab und wir kriegen gute Plätze ab. Ach was hab ich mir vorgängig überlegt wie ich vorgehen soll. Und schwups wars erledigt.
Dank seatguru.com konnt ich bereits vorher schauen, welches die schicken Plätze sind, damit wir nicht gleich über dem Flügel sitzen. Es hatte auch noch unerwartet viel Platz.. wir mit unserem billigsten Flugtarif hatten keine Möglichkeit Sitzplätze vorher zu reseriveren oder ähnliches. Hach das Lob ich mir doch noch SWISS, dort kann man nämlich auch mit dem günstigsten Tarif Plätze reservieren, zwar ohne Gewähr, aber letztes mal nach Big Apple hats geklappt.
Wie auch immer… jeweils A&B Plätze Fenster und Mitte für den Flug nach London und dann mit der Boeing 747 nach Uebersee. Bin noch nie doppelstöckige Boeing geflogen.
Unser Flugi auf Seatguru.com > wir haben die Plätze A+B in Reihe 43. Passt doch..
ALERT: America Targets Pakistan And Silences The Critics
Shireen M Mazari | PKKH
Dr. Shireen Mazari has had the honor of being one of the targets of the US Embassy in Islamabad particularly since 2008 when in her columns she broke the news of US Army’s General Hood coming to Pakistan and the 11 conditions that the Pakistani government was quietly planning to accept granting unfettered access in Pakistan for US personnel with no legal restraints.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—While US diplomats target their critics in Pakistan with a new ferocity, the US media and politicians target the Pakistan’s nuclear and military capability.
Taking the latter first, Dr. Khan had barely gained his “freedom” when that murderous former Vice President Dick Cheney, in a pre-taped interview to Fox News (30 August), declared that the Obama Administration should use the CIA to find out what Dr. Khan was up to! Cheney also expressed pride in the Bush Administration’s aggressive use of drones in FATA!
So should we assume that the increased presence of Blackwater and other unidentified US personnel in Islamabad may also have Dr. Khan as a possible target?
Nor was it just Cheney firing off on one of America’s obsessions – Dr. Khan – while quite unconcerned about the massive proliferation that the US continues to Israel (this is all now part of the published and available data in case the US embassy accuses this scribe of falsehood again).
More irritating than disturbing, has been the story in The New York Times (NYT), citing unnamed senior administration and congressional officials (of course when we cite similar sources, US officialdom is not amused), accusing Pakistan of modifying the Harpoon missiles given to the Pakistan navy to enable to hit land-based targets.
Had the NYT bothered to do some basic research they would have realized that Pakistan has no need to modify the old Harpoon missiles when they already have far better land-based missile systems already battle-tested and in their arsenal. As it is, the Harpoon does not have the range that would be required to hit land-based targets.
The question that arises then is why plant this story now – apart from the continuing US effort to undermine the Pakistan’s military capability and keep the military institution under pressure (or so they assume)?
One reason may have to do with putting pressure on the Pakistan Navy to give its go-ahead to the US request, forwarded by Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense to the Naval Chief, to allow them to build a landing strip near Gwadar (their own miniport facility) where US marines can land “some stuff” ostensibly as part of their anti-narcotic activities. So far there has been no response from the Pakistani side. Why they can’t do that at the existing facilities in the area is the question some Pakistanis are asking?
Interestingly, in relation to the Pakistan Navy and the Harpoon issue, there are also unconfirmed but reliable reports that the Special Services Group Navy (SSGN) is constructing operational facilities in Gharo, Sindh (close to the Indus delta, south of Thatta) which are purpose-built to serve as a base for an army unit – comprising halls, residential units and storage facilities. Some years back the Navy had decided to shift the SSGN headquarter (PNS Iqbal) from the dockyard to a coastal area, but Gharo was not the likely sight at the time. Because there has been a sudden increase in assistance to the SSGN from the US, questions are being raised whether this shifting of the SSGN to Gharo is actually a ruse to allow US Marine “trainers” to arrive there in large numbers on the pretext of training the SSGN commandos in newly-acquired weapons and tactics? So, the old carrot and stick approach – assistance and then the ridiculous Harpoon story – continues to be at work. What is disturbing here is that perhaps this whole Gharo “deal” is being done at a micro tactical level with the overall military high command not totally in the know. Certainly, it merits a closer examination by the military leadership and more transparency.
Clearly, the Americans do not understand the ordinary Pakistani. Their interaction with the ruling elites has led them to assume that this elite, with its tendency towards subservience and a constant gaze towards Washington (with a few exceptions) is reflective of the Pakistani nation at large. But, to their dismay, they are finding out otherwise even as they infiltrate into the bureaucratic and academic set ups in Pakistan. Again, subtlety having never been a strong American trait, they are responding to negative responses of ordinary Pakistanis in the usual ham-fisted manner in an effort to silence the critics. This writer has had the honor of being one of their targets especially since 2008 when stories regarding General Hood and the 11 conditions relating to unfettered access in Pakistan for US personnel with no legal restraints broke on the front pages of The News.
But even earlier, when Mr. Riaz Khokhar was Foreign Secretary, the US embassy had sought to have me either silenced in terms of my column or removed from the Institute of Strategic Studies – or else the embassy would assume that I was reflecting (heavens forbid) the official views of the Government of Pakistan. That is why some readers may recall for a while at the bottom of my column there was a one-liner stating that the views expressed were my own. Full credit to Mr. Khokhar for standing his ground, but I knew it was simply a matter of time when I would be liberated from all official strangleholds.
Now, once again, the US Ambassador, has turned her guns on this scribe as well as some electronic media hosts – all of whom have been exposing the increasing muscle flexing by the growing number of non-diplomatic Americans now in Pakistan – especially the notorious Blackwater – now re-christened Xe Worldwide. Just for the record, whatever has appeared in these columns regarding this group and the dubious Creative Associates International Inc (CAII) has been gleaned from Western media sources including the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), but then verified from reliable local sources. It is interesting to see how the more the US penetrates Pakistani officialdom, the more the saner elements within this officialdom show their anger and frustration and reveal to ordinary Pakistanis the wholesale handing over of the country to Washington.
Especially with the Blackwater issue refusing to die down in the media despite a strange silence in Parliament and in spite of threats of multiple types from the yet-to-be-expanded US embassy in Islamabad; new revelations are made on a daily basis about US shenanigans in Pakistan. Here in Pakistan it has got to the stage where one is not sure who is an “official” American and who is not. After all, the guard who abused Pakistan and an SHO in the diplomatic enclave was a member of the US government; but who were the three Americans who beat up a Pakistani citizen, Mohsin Bokhari, in Islamabad’s Aabpara last week? After using violence against this citizen they did eventually apologize, but the police refused to register a case because they felt that if the case registered by the SHO of the diplomatic enclave had no impact in terms of justice – thanks to the pusillanimity of the present Ministry of Foreign Affairs setup – it would simply be a waste of their energy in the month of fasting to register yet another case of violence by Americans against a Pakistani citizen.
Further, as the growing disaffection hits the more conscientious Pakistanis in officialdom, what should one make of the information (from frustrated police officials) regarding four Americans initially arrested on Friday, 25 August, at FIA headquarters, Peshawar Morrh, Islamabad with unlicensed automatic weapons (seven MI-6) and no identification – although the arresting officials say they were “kala pani” (Blackwater) personnel around 14:45. When they were brought to the Margala police station, SP Nasir Aftab, who had previously been serving in the diplomatic enclave, also arrived, followed by US embassy’s security officer, a retired Pakistan army officer, Captain Ijaz. The latter abused and threatened the policemen and in front of SP Aftab had the four Americans, with no diplomatic identity, released from custody. When the SHO protested, SP Aftab also adopted Captain Ijaz’s tone and later confessed he was helpless as he had orders from “above” for the release of these American law breakers. Incidentally, if the US Administration has no links with Blackwater anymore, why is the US embassy in the forefront of interceding on their behalf?
So how much pressure will we all be able to endure and when will we all be silenced one way or another? If the Americans understood us they would realize that the Pakistani nation cannot be silenced into submission despite its leadership.
This article was supposed to appear today in The News International but did not due to reported pressure from the US Embassy in Islamabad.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Hello Kitty celebra su 35 aniversario
Me encanta esta noticia, Hello Kitty celebra su 35 aniversario este otoño con las actividades, fiestas y lanzamiento de nuevos productos. En todo el mundo el tema de Hello Kitty del 35 aniversario es “Hello Kitty Colores”. Sanrio, la empresa que las licencias de Hello Kitty, afirma que los colores transmitir la “esencia de Hello Kitty que ha mantenido su atractivo para los devotos y por tanto tiempo.” Los colores son el rojo para la amistad, de color rosa para el bonito, de color amarillo para heartful, verde y lavanda de deseo de dulces. El mensaje de cada color se refleja en su marca de proa.
“Hello Kitty colores del mundo y captura el corazón y la imaginación de tantas personas”, dijo Janet Hsu, Presidente de Sanrio Global Consumer Products. “El tema de Hello Kitty del aniversario está inspirado en su legado y los amantes de las cualidades que han resonado con los aficionados de todo el mundo durante los últimos 35 años”.
Tiendas de todo el mundo llevará a Hello Kitty del 35 aniversario con temas de la mercancía a partir de septiembre. Cientos de productos asociados con la etapa de despliegue de este año, incluyendo prendas de vestir, joyas de edición limitada y de colección. Kitty35.com es el sitio web oficial para el mundial de Hello Kitty 35 aniversario celebración. Un autentico capricho para todos/as sus seguidores.
Para más información: http://kitty35.com/english/index.html
No perderse esto, no tiene desperdicio: http://www.mundo.in.rs/2009/06/abc-news-now-entrevistas-hello-kitty/
Barack Obama vs The Children
Yet again, my post owes its existence to the Drudge Report, where misleading headlines rule the roost (though not in this case).
President Obama is going to address the children of the US during school hours on September 8, apparently. I really don’t know more beyond that, and honestly could anything sound more innocuous? I mean, who cares? Even the Drudge link only editorializes a bit by deeming the event “unprecedented”. The linked document on docstoc.com is a Department of Education-generated set of classroom activities for after the speech. I skimmed it and from what I can tell it’s standard-issue stuff; nothing controversial that I could glean.
There’s no information about what the actual content of the speech will be. Probably because of that, at least in part, and because of the Drudge link, there are some of the funniest comments I’ve read in a while (hint: some kids will be staying home from school that day). Scroll down the docstoc.com page and read your little heart out but here are some choice nuggets:
“It is not the POTUS’s responsibility to address this nation’s children. I personally will be keeping my children from the Government School’s indoctrinations.”
“Resist this communist, NOW! Quit stuffing your homes with crap, and spend that money instead on home schooling! And while you are at it, buy weapons and ammo for the civil war to come!”
“This guy is really, really creepy, moreso than in my strangest nightmares.”
“We’re being sold down the river Styx and have no say in the direction the tillerman is steering… straight to Hades.”
“Next year our children may be forced to march in Washington and MaObama will wave to them and the children will chant; Our Great Leader!”
“Top secret speeches to school children nationwide…?”
“That’s right, kiddies. Make sure you tell your mommy and daddy what I just told you: capitalism – evil, communism – good. White man is the devil. [keep it down, Rev Wright!] We owe our souls to the collective.”
“I just printed this out, took it out to my backyard and urinated all over it.”
“Once he has the children and the radio stations, he has the Nation!”
“REMEMBER, his words are being written by William Ayers, PhD, Education!”
This simply is UNBELIEVABLE!!! I’m speechless. This really cannot be happening?!!!
“Just one more ‘goose step’ in the direction of NAZI Socialism.”
“You have to appreciate Obama’s temerity at lecturing children too young to know better. We used to call that taking advantage of a kid. I’m surprised he hasn’t offered them candy. Maybe he will – you know, a perfect world, free EVERYTHING and a benign government that loves you. Emotional molestation is sometimes worse then physical.”
“I voted for OBAMA, I was wrong, please forgive me.”
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
US Plans For ‘Imperial’ Presence In Pakistan
By: PKKH
Karamatullah K. Ghori
Pardon the Pakistani news media going gaga over Washington’s plans to beef up, extraordinarily, its diplomatic presence in Pakistan. The plans are staggering and stupendous, for want of more descriptive adjectives. But they are, for the record, just geared to Washington’s diplomatic stake in Pakistan, lest the Pakistanis routinely clobbered in the ‘civilised western world’ for their outbursts of emotions over supposedly petty little things.
‘The Americans are coming, and coming big,’ according to media pundits in Pakistan. And none should blame them for going over the top because the figures being bandied about are, to say the very least, flabbergasting.
What’s on the drawing boards in Washington and Islamabad are the blue prints for vastly increasing the number of American personnel manning one of the most important diplomatic presence in the 21st century for the Americans in Pakistan. Apparently, Washington feels that its battery of 750 men and women stocking the American Embassy in Islamabad is far too inadequate to cope with the job on their hands. They need to be given a big injection to inflate their muscles. The magic potion said to be brewing would add at least another thousand people on what’s being described as a ‘war footing.’ That would take US diplomatic presence in Islamabad way above the current largest American diplomatic mission in Beijing, China; the number there stands at a paltry 1450.
The US Congress agrees with the mandarins at the State Department and has allocated 940 million dollars for the embassy in Islamabad and a number of American consulates, particularly those in Karachi and Peshawar. The fortress-like new consulate on Karachi’s Arabian Sea is spread over six acres of prime land, given to them at a throw-away price, of course. What are friends for, after all, and the Americans, don’t forget, have powerful friends in very high places in Pakistan.
(Meanwhile, US ambassador Anne Patterson, reacting to media reports, has said that the number of Marines in the new embassy would be less than 20. They would be accommodated in a bomb-proof facility. At present the embassy has 250 regular staff, 200 visiting American staff and 1,000 local personnel. Another 500 would be added in next three years.)
The government of Pakistan is obviously chipping into these plans with a magnanimity that our ruling elite is so well-known for, as far as their overseas ‘friends’ are concerned. They may be tight-fisted and niggardly to their own people but for minders and mentors from the world beyond Pakistan, sky is the limit.
Little wonder, therefore, that a huge parcel of 18 acres of prime land in Islamabad’s exclusive diplomatic enclave has been ‘sold’ to the American Embassy for just one billion rupees, a fraction of its market worth. What is 18 acres between friends; peanuts when you think of how magnanimously Pervez Musharraf presented the whole of Pakistan to his American mentors over just a phone call from Colin Powell. It was a friendly transaction between two soldiers.
So the fortress in Islamabad, when built, will dwarf the mini-fortress of Karachi. It will be a city in its own right, a typical American enclave on Pakistan’s soil, with its own residential colony for the staff and all the requisite paraphernalia of entertainment and security to convey the American sense in spades to its denizens.
But wait. The Pakistani pundits have nothing to grudge the Americans their plans to replicate their America on a little patch of Pakistan. What worries them is what’s at the core of these huge plans of expansion, and what kind of people are coming in droves to Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar with the obvious intent to cover all the bases in Pakistan.
Pakistan can’t seem to get rid of its perennial problem of being hyphenated with this or that of its neighbours in Washington’s esteem. It was India until not too long ago when American relations with India were taken to another, high, pedestal, with Pakistan left in a limbo to search its own station in American evaluation.
For a moment Pakistan thought it had jettisoned, for good, its hyphenated syndrome. But that feeling didn’t last long. The US is immersed deep into its Afghan adventure and Pakistan is back in its role of a key, front-line, ally. Hence Pakistan can’t be separated from Afghanistan; hence it must play out to the hilt its role of a soldier in a forward trench whose mission is to pull Washington’s chestnut out of the Afghan fire.
It doesn’t matter how Pakistan got involved in the Bush war on terror, or how Musharraf succumbed to the pressure. The ground reality, no matter how tart or unpalatable to a lot of Pakistanis, is that Pakistan is up to its eyeballs into America’s war and must pay the price of the follies of its rulers, past and present.
The US drew a seminal lesson from its involvement in World War II and that’s that America can best be protected, if not insulated from the outside world, by drawing its lines of defence in far off lands, in places wherever a threat to US security or its quest for global dominance may occur and must be pre-empted with maximum force.
The American wars in Korea and Vietnam were triggered by this policy of offence-being-the-best-defence. George W. Bush, an ardent practitioner of Pax Americana couldn’t be more articulate than coining the shibboleth of ‘taking the war to the enemy.’ The invasion of Afghanistan, on the heels of 9/11 was justified on this premise, besides being a prop to Bush’s dream of an imperial America holding the world in its thrall.
Barack Obama may be poles-apart from Bush on so many other things but shares his perception of fighting the enemy on its terrain. Add to it his own vision of winning the war in Afghanistan at any cost. So no price is too high once you commit yourself to achieving a goal; and Obama has his heart set on ferreting out victory of any sort in Afghanistan after having lost the one in Iraq.
But wars can’t be won cheap. They require elaborate logistics. Pakistan has become a cockpit of conflict and chaos spawned by its involvement in the Afghan imbroglio. So Pakistan must be primed to deliver according to Washington’s expectations. Logistics must be so arranged as to deal with Pakistan’s chaotic and turbulent scenario according to Washington’s master-plan for the area.
The logistics involve the building of fortresses bristling with hi-tech gadgetry that keeps the troublesome Pakistanis, or the Pakistani Taliban and their ilk, at a safe distance. That’s an essential tool of 21st century imperialistic reach. In the olden days of imperialism they used to occupy whole countries and convert them into colonies. Technological sophistication and advancement has offered better alternatives, dispensing with the archaic practice of outright colonies to intimidate the locals. Hence the logic and imperative for modern-day fortresses like the ones springing up from one end of Pakistan to another.
Those who have followed the American adventure in Iraq know what havoc mercenary American defence contractors wreaked there. Blackwater was a principal mercenary outfit to which the State Department outsourced its obligations in Iraq. Its gung-ho mercenaries raped and murdered Iraqis at will to such an extent that even the supine government of Noori Al-Maliki was forced to impel Washington to pull Blackwater’s notorious murderers out of Iraq.
The same Blackwater is now getting ready to replicate its Iraqi tactics in Pakistan and some of its operatives are already believed to be in action in Peshawar and its environs. The word has gone out that the Americans are keen to buy Peshawar’s lone 5-star hotel in order to accommodate the likes of Blackwater in luxury for special operations within Pakistan and beyond, in Afghanistan, of course.
The State Department has obviously drawn no lessons from its skewed Iraqi operations and seems willing to retry them in Pakistan. One shudders to think of the fallout of a lethal confrontation between the rogues of Blackwater, running berserk across the troubled North West Frontier Region just as they did in Iraq, and the trigger-happy Pakistani Taliban to whom these provocative aliens would be like red rag to an enraged bull.
The US is a global power charged with a self-anointed mission to fight wherever necessary to keep the terrorists away from its shores. Its history of such messianic adventures not only justifies war by any means but also sanctifies its actions. The question troubling the Pakistani minds is why should their rulers be so blind to this deadly game being played out on the Pakistani turf?
Amerika Gunlukleri: "hersey cok guzel olacak"
selamlar efendim…
Oncelikle blogdaki yazilarim konusunda verdigim sozleri tutamamanin sahte uzuntusunu yasadigimi sizlerle paylasmak istiyorum… Pek de umrumda olmayan sebeplerden dolayi Pink yazisini yazmamamin ustune Niagara yazisini da yazmayacak olmam eklendi… Niagara gunlukleri de bana kalsin deyip, Amerika’daki son gunume dair edecegim birkac kelama geciyorum;
Acisiyla tatlisiyla derlerdi de, ben sinir olurdum, ama aslinda klise timimiz oldukca hakliymis… Gercekten de heyecanli, bunaltici, zaman zaman eglenceli, zaman zaman da oldukca rutin bir iki bucuk ay geride kaldi. Boston’daki son aksamimi yasarken geriye baktigimda, gozlerim Amerika’daki aylarimi atlayip direkt olarak Turkiye’deki hayatima odaklaniyor…
Amerika, iyi ya da kotu oldugunu su anda kestiremedigim bir ruyaydi ve bitmek uzere… Gercek hayatima, guzel ulkeme yarin donuyorum. Ailemin, arkadaslarimin, sevgilimin ve elbette Vera’nin hayatindaki yerimi tekrar alacagim hayali 1 gun sonra gercek olacak…
Herseyi cok ozledigim ve bu ozlemimin dayanilmaz hale geldigi anda geriye donecek olmam mutluluk verici… Vera yeni sarkilari, ben de hayatimi geri almayi bekliyorum…
Son zamanlarda, bu blogda paylasilamayak sebeplerle biraz huzunlu de olsam, su anda umutluyum. Geri donuyorum, heyecanliyim.
Mazhar Alanson’un bir filmi vardi hani;
“Hersey cok guzel olacak…”
Iste oyle…
Koray