Merry Christmas: Hundreds of Millions Crushed by the Cross

Andre Vltchek

White foam, kitschy lights and embarrassing computer generated melodies. Year after year, the same crap. Not tired yet?

Christian families gather; they perform rituals, exchange gifts. All this is taking place under the crucifixion, which has been elevated to the reason, justification and excuse for the most intense, long-lasting and on-going slaughter of human beings in the history of mankind.

Hundreds of millions, all over the world, have died so that “the message of Jesus” could live. Millions are still dying now, so that Christian fundamentalists can manipulate, rule and plunder the world, unopposed.

Those neocons, the neo-colonialists, and Western exceptionalists/supremacists – are all comfortably seated in their saddles, as in the days of the Spanish Inquisition, or the insane reign of Calvin.

Aren’t all the mountain ranges of corpses and vast oceans of blood really enough?

The snow, real and chemical, is soaked in red – a deep-red color.

***

Year after year, I monitor the crimes against humanity committed by these Christian “warriors”. I monitor and report. For many years I have observed and written down my findings.

2015 has been full of “great Christian deeds” – again!

Throughout this year, the Christian fundamentalist West continued derailing what was left of socialist Islam, manufacturing, funding and arming various grotesque factions and armies, including ISIS. During the conference I attended in Teheran this year, I was told by two Muslim scholars and philosophers, that Washington, London and Paris have managed to “create a totally new religion” that has nothing to do with the original and socially-oriented Islam. As a result, in 2015 alone millions have been displaced and tens of thousands are dying.

As in the middle ages, attacked and destabilized Muslim countries are collapsing, sending millions of refugees to all corners of the globe. Further millions are internally displaced.

Tiny Lebanon has now over 2 million refugees from both Syria and Iraq, and Russia has over one million people fleeing both Ukraine and the Middle East.

After bloodsucking all over the world, particularly the Middle East and Africa, the West “just cannot take more refugees”. This is what it says! The entire West cannot accommodate one million people, after robbing and raping all the continents of our Planet.

Oh that poor, stressed and overwhelmed Christian West! It is so, so charitable, so kind, so bloody civilized, but it just cannot do anything to help those hordes flooding into its castle from the east and the south! We should all understand and sympathize!

Of course, its theaters, parks, train stations, schools, social systems are all built on the corpses of hundreds of millions, scattered across all continents. Its “culture” is constructed on what was directly robbed from the Arab world, Persia, China and those great American civilizations before they were ruined by the Western holocausts. The only reason why the Christian West prospered and won countless colonialist battles is because it behaved like a beast, a true animal, in short: like the most brutal and barbarous thug on the face of the Earth. Progress? What progress? “Progress” towards what? It was all just pure Christian fundamentalist degeneracy. And it still is. Even the so-called ‘secular’ and ‘non-religious’ West is essentially resting on the pillars of Christian dogma, expansionism and deep-rooted complexes of superiority.

“Stop the refugees!” voices are heard. “Stop the Muslims!” And loudest of all come the shouts: “Stop the terrorists!”

Twisted Christian dogma helps with the best propaganda on earth: that of the West. Their bottom line reads like this: “We kill millions of your people, bomb your cities to the ground, but if some other guys blow a few bombs and kill a few hundred people annually, that justifies our war on terror.”

You see, a Westerner, or a Christian, can never be a terrorist. Even such a thought is forbidden.

Yes, rob and kill and rule, but all that has to be done remotely, long-distance. That is the Christian way. And remember: you slap our face and we will… offer you another cheek? Get real! In your dream, dude! We will nuke your cities!

After destabilizing dozens of countries, so that the bloody mess could further serve its neo-colonialist designs, the Christian West is now sending armies to push those debilitated millions of poor, starving people escaping Libya, Syria and other countries, far away from the proximity of its refined churches, perfumed department stores and glowing Christmas markets.

What a spectacle of that fabled Christian charity! What humility and kindness!

You loot, rape and torture, and then you throw a few crumbs across the barbed wire, at those whose natural resources made your social systems and obnoxious subsidies so lavish.

If someone protests, you shoot. If some government resists, you overthrow it. And then you yell: stay away, you rugged hordes!

Your people elect near fascist governments, just in order to prevent some pseudo-leftist politician from applying at least a bit of internationalist policies.

Oh, what a ride it was, this year, for true Christianity!

***

I witnessed the entire Central Asia going up in flames, after thousands of Western-backed NGOs began spreading nationalist, racist and divisive ideologies. A man from Kyrgyzstan, a moderate Muslim scholar whom I was supposed to meet, was stabbed countless times by ISIL, just a few days before I landed in Bishkek.

As in Oceania, Africa, Latin America and Asia, the Christian preachers were injected (by the West) into the complex Central Asian cultural fabric, in order to destroy peace and understanding between the various ethnic and religious groups.

From where the hell is the West managing to get so many of those militant, aggressive, thoroughly degenerate preachers, priests and clerics? They seem to be growing on some ancient colonial plantations before being transplanted into all the continents of the Earth!

Primitive, constantly at war with the poor are these hateful, Economist-reading, Voice of America-listening clerics.

How to neutralize them? How to get rid of them? During and after their revolutions, the French and then the Russians used to hang them on streetlamps. It is not done like this, anymore. The Empire reserves the right for itself and for its lackeys to lie, agitate, brainwash and poison. As long as these treasonous preachers are defending Western Christian doctrine, colonialism and capitalism, they are extremely well protected!

***

In 2015, the Christian right wing deeply damaged our revolutions all over Latin America.

It continues to batter China, through the religious implants sent to it from all over East Asia and elsewhere.

Extreme right-wing preachers and agents from the United States, Europe, Australia and Canada keep invading countries like Indonesia, as well as virtually all the nations of Africa and Oceania.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, true beasts, warlords/Christian fundamentalist preachers, are exterminating their own citizens on behalf of Western multi-national companies and governments. Since 1995, the DRC has lost around 10 million people.

***

Lately, one “Christian episode” from my youth keeps coming to my mind.

Just a few weeks after arriving in the US, I took a train from New York City to Washington D.C., to see the Capital. I spent several hours hanging around the place, terrified by the open, unconcealed misery so clearly visible only a few minutes from the landmark government buildings and monuments.

On the way back, it was almost dark in the Amtrak carriage, as the train was slowly making its way back to New York.

Next to me sat a Polish priest. “I am a visiting priest”, he told me at the beginning of the journey. “And I am an anti-Communist.”

A few minutes after the Baltimore stop, he began molesting me.

His insane face was twisted by lust. He was breathing heavily. His hands kept grabbing me, searching for the zipper of my fly.

I pushed him away, but he kept whispering vile stuff in Polish.

I stood up and did the only sensible thing: I punched him straight in his face, with all my strength.

His nose began to bleed.

When the conductor passed through the car, the priest ran to him and complained that I had attacked him.

That’s how they used to run their “anti-Communist struggle back home”, I thought. Molest and then run to the West, complaining and whining.

The conductor was a reasonable, good-humored African-American man. I explained to him what had in fact happened. He trusted me, and he seated me somewhere else. “I was molested in my church on several occasions”, he uttered, patting my shoulder.

A few minutes later, the priest approached my seat. A maniacal expression on his face, he grabbed my arm and whispered: “Pray! Pray with me!”

He knelt between the seats and began praying.

I almost hit him again, but I didn’t. I would, if something like this happened now.

Because now, I clearly understand that this is exactly how they run the world: they molest and rape, they rob and when caught, they lie, pretending that they committed no crime. And they force people they harmed to succumb to their vision of the world, to their religion. Their criminal dogma is supposed to be utilized for healing and “redemption” purposes.

What a sick world they have been creating!

“Our dogmas, our religion, raped you. Pray to it for your salvation!” Bastards!

***

Among other reasons, this year of 2015 was significant because I accepted the invitation to speak at the philosophical Whitehead conference in Southern California, where I met, once again, my friend and perhaps the greatest living Christian theologian John Cobb.

I challenged him and he accepted. For several hours we debated Christianity, and the reasons why this religion is so closely linked with imperialism, colonialism, capitalism and all forms of manipulation, extermination and torture of human beings.

The results of our discussion will be converted into a slim book that will be published in 2016 by Badak Merah.

***

If the discussion about all the horrors committed by Christianity could ever reach some rational or even philosophical level, the main argument of the apologists would always be the same: “It is not really the Bible, or Jesus, or Christianity itself that should be blamed for those hundreds of millions of lost lives, for the entire continents consumed by flames, for the theft and rape of entire great civilizations. Oh no, not Christianity! It is those “bad Christians” who should be held liable.”

Such arguments are thoroughly banal, as they are insulting. Logically, responsible are both people and the dogma!

All religions are man-made, including Christianity. Christianity is, of course, a result of imperfect and archaic human thinking.

It is clear that there is plenty encoded in Christianity that has been able to trigger the greatest crimes against humanity, committed, again and again, until this very moment.

Had Christianity not been a religion but a political movement, it would have been banned a long time ago, simply due to its reoccurring genocidal behavior.

If for another few decades we just study and analyze and look for theoretical and philosophical answers, without stopping this monstrous dogma, Christianity could easily devour another 10 or 20 million human lives! Based on its track record, it easily could. It could continue to swallow entire nations, while yelling, lying and pointing fingers at all directions, calling the poor, the Muslims and the Communists, the true dangers and menaces to the world!

Then, each year, each hypocritical “Merry Christmas”, we will be counting victims and measuring cubic liters of blood, spilled on that real and chemical “virgin” snow!

Idaho food service worker fired for giving hungry student free food worth $1.70

George Gallanis

In cruel bureaucratic fashion, Dalene Bowden was fired from her job last week as a food service worker at Irving Middle School in Pocatello, Idaho just ahead of the Christmas holiday after she gave a hungry student with no money a free lunch. The total cost of the food was $1.70.

Following the incident, Bowden was placed on unpaid leave and then received a letter days later issuing the termination of her position. In the letter, signed by Susan Petit, Director of Human Resources of Pocatello School District 25, it stated: “The reason of your termination is due to your theft-stealing [sic] school district or another’s property and inaccurate transactions when ordering, receiving, and serving food.”

Dalene Bowden’s termination letter

According to Bowden, for the three years she has worked for the school she has never once been written up or reprimanded for her job performance. She did, however, receive a verbal warning for giving a student a free cookie. Bowden offered to pay for the $1.70 lunch but was rejected by her supervisor.

Bowden has since launched an online funding campaign through gofundme.com to raise money for an attorney to change the law around the school’s ability to fire workers for unlawful accusations of theft.

“I admits [sic] I broke the rules, but I’m not apologizing and I would do exactly the same thing again regardless of the consequences. I was a lunch lady at Irving Middle School. I was placed on unpaid leave Tuesday after I gave a free lunch to a 12-year-old student who didn’t have money to pay for her hot lunch,” Bowden said on her fundraising page. “I love my job, I really do, This [sic] just breaks my heart, and I was in the wrong, but what do you do when the kid tells you that they’re hungry, and they don’t have any money? I handed her the tray.”

Many children throughout the US are not able to afford their school lunch. Poverty amongst children in Idaho is widespread.

In 2013, the National Center for Children in Poverty estimated 22 percent, or more than 30,000 of Idaho’s young children, below the age of 6, lived with poor families, while overall 80,467, amounting to 19 percent, of Idaho’s children lived with poor families. The federal poverty threshold for a family of four with two children in 2013 was a paltry $23,624.

The social crisis of poverty amongst children is endemic to the entire United States. Citing a study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the WSWS wrote in February, 2015, “child poverty in America is more widespread than at any time in the last 50 years. For all the claims of economic ‘recovery’ in the United States, the reality for the new generation of the working class is one of ever-deeper social deprivation.”

Amidst ongoing cuts to social services like Food Stamps, Bowden’s firing is the ruthless expression of the state’s role in this era of social deprivation: to assure that the working class does not receive a penny more than it is allotted.

Western Australia suffers “greatest revenue shock since Great Depression”

Mike Head

Three announcements this week in Western Australia—once known as the country’s greatest resources “boom state”—underscore the extent to which the fallout from the 2008 financial breakdown is now hitting Australia with increasing severity.

Until 2013, Australian capitalism avoided the worst immediate effects of the 2008 crash, but only because of inflated demand for mining and energy commodities, mainly driven by massive stimulus measures by the Beijing regime. Since then, export prices have plunged as China’s economic growth has slowed dramatically because of the ongoing and deepening world slump.

The first announcement was the state government’s mid-year budget update, which forecast a record $3.1 billion budget deficit this year—up from the $2.7 billion predicted in its May Budget. This was primarily due to the continuing collapse of global prices for iron ore—the royalties from which account for no less than 20 percent of the state’s income.

The state Treasury revised down its iron ore price forecast for this year from $US47.50 a tonne to $46 a tonne. Just last year, the Treasury’s prediction was $120 a tonne. According to the mid-year review, there will be another deficit of $A3 billion in 2016-17 and of $820 million in 2017-18.

Treasurer Mike Nahan said the revenue forecasts had been revised down by a total of $17 billion over the forward estimates since May 2014. “That is the biggest revenue shock a government—state or federal—has experienced in Australia since the Great Depression of 1930,” he said.

Over the next three years, the state debt is predicted to spiral to $39 billion, adding a substantial interest payment burden, and threatening the state’s AA+ credit rating—already downgraded by the world financial markets from AAA.

As measured by State Final Demand, Western Australia’s once booming growth rate has gone into reverse, with the mid-year review again revising it down to -2.25 percent (compared to the May budget estimate of -1.25 percent). Business investment is now estimated to have fallen 12.3 percent in 2014-15, one of the sharpest expressions of the plunge in investment across Australia.

The slump in demand for iron ore has been compounded by stepped-up output by BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and other giant ore producers, all desperately trying to shore up their profit margins. Goldman Sachs last week predicted that iron ore will average only $35 a tonne in both 2017 and 2018, citing “overcapacity in China’s steel industry.”

Yesterday, there was another indicator of declining iron ore prospects. Aurizon, an Australian coal and rail freight company, shelved its planned $4.5 billion West Pilbara project in Western Australia’s north. Its partners, Chinese steel maker Baosteel, South Korea’s Posco and Hong Kong mining investor AMCI, indicated a lack of global demand. Aurizon, which was spun out of a privatised Queensland state rail corporation in 2010, suffered its biggest one-day share price drop as a result.

The third announcement was that more than 1,200 jobs have been axed from Chevron’s $US54 billion Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) project off the state’s northwest coast in the lead-up to Christmas. Last Thursday and Friday, 530 electrical workers were laid off, in addition to about 700 others over the past two weeks, including boilermakers, pipe fitters, welders and trades assistants.

Many of these workers were sacked, without notice, by SMSs, phone calls or notes slipped under the doors of their accommodation. Such methods have increasingly become the norm to terminate the services of the tens of thousands of “fly-in, fly-out” workers nationally who once relied on these projects for their livelihoods.

Not only is Chevron’s contraction a particularly harsh pre-Christmas blow to thousands of workers and their families, who had been led to believe that the jobs would last until at least March. It points to the likely acceleration—driven by falling world oil and gas prices—of job losses on the seven large LNG projects that have been under construction in Australia for the past several years.

These developments further expose the long-cultivated myth of Australian exceptionalism, which depicted a “lucky country” that was somehow shielded from the crises of global capitalism. In 2010, The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party, the SEP’s founding document, emphasised:

“Throughout the history of the Australian workers’ movement, the Labor and trade union bureaucracies, together with the various ex-radical organisations, have promoted the myth of Australian exceptionalism as a counter to the development of socialist consciousness. In the latter part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th, they characterised Australia as the ‘workingman’s paradise,’ where the laws of the class struggle did not apply.

“Today, in the midst of the greatest economic and financial crisis in three-quarters of a century, the illusion is once again being promoted that Australia is ‘exceptional’ and has ‘weathered’ the storm. While the first phase of the global financial crisis that began in 2007–2008 has passed, neither the world economy nor Australian capitalism can return to the past. A vast ‘restructuring’ of economic and class relations is underway on a global scale that will propel the working class into political struggle.”

The sharp reversal that has confronted Australian capitalism over the past two years has already brought forward a deepening assault on workers’ jobs and living standards. This has been spearheaded by mass retrenchments and closures in the mining, auto and steel industries, together with major budget cutbacks to health and welfare provisions, widespread privatisations and cuts to the public sector, and a drive to slash wage levels, including the abolition of after-hours penalty rates.

In Western Australia, the Liberal Party government previously reacted to the initial signs of revenue collapse by eliminating thousands of public servants’ jobs in its 2014 and 2015 budgets. Now, it will freeze public sector recruitment, impose a clamp on public servants’ wage rises, and sell off an array of public assets, starting with Fremantle Ports, the Perth Market Authority, the Utah Point iron ore berth in the Pilbara. These measures will further push up the state’s unemployment rate, already officially at 6.6 percent—representing nearly 100,000 jobless workers.

Having enjoyed super-profits for two decades, the major mining-related companies and their political servants are ruthlessly imposing the burden of the economic breakdown on the back of the working class.

The only response of the opposition Labor Party has been to criticise the Liberals for “over-spending.” Shadow state Treasurer Ben Wyatt called the mid-year review a “train wreck” produced by seven years of “shocking” financial management. Wyatt refused to specify the cuts a Labor government would make, clearly anxious to keep Labor’s plans hidden from the view of the working class.

Labor, which was in office in Western Australia from 1983 to 1993 and 2001 to 2008, has long sought the backing of the corporate elite for the return to government by pledging to be more “fiscally responsible” than the Liberals. This means intensifying the dismantling of working class living conditions.

Sri Lankan farmers protest against budget cuts

W.A Sunil

Thousands of farmers marched in Colombo last Thursday, demanding the reversal of cuts to fertiliser subsidies and guaranteed prices for paddy rice, imposed by President Maithripala Sirisena’s government, led by the right-wing United National Party (UNP).

More than 3,000 peasants and their families from Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Kandy, Matale, Kurunegala, Monaragala, Ampara and Hambantota districts took part in the protest, carrying agricultural implements. Some were dressed in loin cloths.

In its recent budget, the government reduced the guaranteed price of a popular variety of rice from 50 to 41 rupees a kilo—a near 20-percent cut. It also moved to scrap fertiliser subsidies.

Under the subsidised system, a 50-kilogram bag of fertiliser was sold to a farmer at 350 rupees (around $US2.50), well below the market price of more than 1,000 rupees. The government’s budget proposed to remove the subsidy and instead pay 25,000 rupees in cash as a subsidy for one hectare per year. Farmers say they need 18 bags of fertiliser for cultivation in two seasons a year, so the cash payment is inadequate.

Confronted by widespread anger among peasants, the government then extended the cash payment to up to two hectares. But it has not changed the proposed system, which is a step toward the total abolition of the fertiliser subsidy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has long advised the government to reduce subsidies to farmers.

This attack on the rural poor comes on top of unbearable debt burdens, rising prices of agro-chemicals and seeds, and high costs of harvesting. It is also part of a series of budget cuts imposed on workers, including the abolition of the paid pension scheme for new recruits to the public service and the privatisation or commercialisation of state-owned corporations.

The protesters marched from Town Hall in Central Colombo to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office, about 2 kilometres away. Police stopped the march near the prime minister’s office, erecting barricades.

Farmers chanted slogans such as “roll back cuts into fertiliser subsidy,” “We don’t need money—give us back fertiliser subsidy” and “Mahinda [former President Mahinda Rajapakse] don’t shed crocodile tears.” This chant was a reference to the fact that Rajapakse is seeking to exploit the hostility among peasants for his own electoral purposes.

Earlier there were protests in Mahiyanganaya, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Kantale and Hambantota.

Last Thursday’s protest was organised by the All Ceylon Farmers Federation (ACFF), which is affiliated to the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The JVP’s aim was also to politically exploit the growing opposition among farmers, while deflecting their anger against the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government.

During the past two weeks, the JVP similarly postured as opposing the budget measures directed against workers, organising token protest campaigns that were limited to distributing leaflets, while the trade unions called off a proposed one-day strike against the measures. In those leaflets, the JVP did not even refer to the farmers’ demands.

The farmers who spoke to WSWS reporters expressed their outrage over the government’s policies and explained the hardships they were experiencing.

A young farmer, Dammika Kumara Wijeratne from Anuradhapura, said: “The farmers will fall from the frying pan into the fire. We will have to spend more than 30,000 rupees extra per hectare per year. The farmers will also lose 9 rupees per kilo from the guaranteed paddy price.”

The average paddy production per hectare is 5,000 kilos and the average cost of production per kilo is 33 rupees. The government purchases only 2,000 kilos from a farmer and the remaining portion has to be sold to private traders at lower prices.

A.M. Karunaratne, a farmer from Nochchiyagama in Anuradhapura, said the previous government cut the fertiliser subsidy gradually. “Under Rajapakse’s government, the amount of subsidised fertiliser was reduced by 50 percent. Now he is shedding crocodile tears for the farmers.

“Many farmers, including me, voted for President Maithripala Sirisena, hoping for ‘yahapalanaya’ (good governance) compared to Rajapakse, and thinking that the farmers would get some relief. Instead, this government is continuing the attacks on us.”

A M Karunaratna

The price of a bag of the fertilisers Urea, Triple Superphosphate (TSP) and Muriate of Potash (MOP) has risen recently from around 1,300 rupees to 2,641, 2,829 and 3014 rupees, respectively. The farmers complained that they cannot afford to buy standard fertiliser and agro-chemicals. They also have to use various weed killers that are useless because of low quality. Using agro-chemicals excessively also causes kidney and skin diseases.

Another farmer, from Embilipitiya in the Rathnapura district, said the previous government stopped paying farmers’ pensions for two years. Under a meagre government pension scheme, farmers had to contribute to the pension fund to receive 1,000 rupees monthly when they reached 60. Last November, when the presidential election was announced, Rajapakse restarted the pension payments as an election gimmick. Having won the election, Sirisena’s government reduced the monthly pension to 950 rupees.

The Embilipitiya farmer added: “You are only insured if you get an agricultural loan from a state bank. The private insurance companies also insure farmers, but both the banks and the companies do not pay reasonable compensation when your crop is destroyed.”

M.V . Weerasena, a banana and vegetable grower from Kubukgate in the Kurunegala district, said vegetable farmers faced the same problems. “We had no fertiliser subsidy, but we were provided a 50 kilo bag at a concessional rate of 1,200 rupees. We will have to spend more than 3,000 rupees per bag now. The prices of seeds are very high. Successive governments have created the conditions for private companies and traders to exploit the farmers in every way.”

W V Weerasena

The JVP and ACFF are cultivating a myth among the farmers that they can defend their rights by placing more pressure on the government. ACFF national organiser Namal Karunaratne told protesters that the “struggle” would continue until the government “rolled back” the subsidy cuts.

The JVP has not defended the rights of the farmers or the working class. JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake served as agriculture, livestock, lands and irrigation minister in the United People’s Freedom Alliance government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2004, helping to implement International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity measures.

The JVP directly assisted Rajapakse’s elevation as president in 2005 and backed his resumption of the communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Then the party indirectly supported Sirisena’s installation into office, and served in his National Executive Council, set up to oversee the implementation of government policies.

The JVP’s hypocritical criticisms of government policies are nothing but a bid to regain its largely-shattered social base among the rural poor. Moreover, the attack on the farmers is not an isolated one. It is a part of a broader offensive against the social and living conditions of workers and the rural poor through IMF-dictated economic “reforms.”

The farmers can only defend their rights by joining the struggle of the working class for a socialist program and to bring a workers’ and peasants’ government into power as part of the fight for international socialism. Only such a government would nationalise the banks, big companies and plantations under the democratic control of the working people. This would create the conditions to provide basic measures, including writing off farmers’ debts, providing cheap credit and supplying the essentials for cultivation at cheap prices.

Madhesi Demands in Nepal: Is there an End in Sight?

Pramod Jaiswal

The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Nepal Kamal Thapa has officially informed the Indian Minister of External Affairs that the Nepalese Cabinet has takensome important decisions to address and resolve demands regarding the Constitution raised by Madhes-based parties. The emergency cabinet meeting of the ruling alliance of three political parties of Nepal endorsed a three-point ‘roadmap’ for the resolution of the crisis. The Government of India “welcomed these developments” as “positive steps” that helped “create the basis for a resolution of the current impasse.”This is the first political initiative Delhi has welcomed in Nepal post the promulgation of the Constitution.While welcoming the development, India has urged all Nepalese political parties to demonstrate the necessary “flexibility and maturity.”

Madhesi Demands and the ‘Roadmap’

Madhesis, who have been agitating for an ‘inclusive constitution’ for the past four months, have blocked the entry of fuel and other essential supplies to Kathmandu. This has incited anti-India and anti-Madhes sentiments among the hill people, stoked by high-pitched political propaganda. They have been demanding the implementation of the past agreements signed between the Government of Nepal and Madhesi parties in 2007 and 2008 in the country’s new Constitution. Although some of the points from the past agreements have been included in the Constitution, the four major points - electoral constituencies based on population, proportional representation of Madhesi in government bodies, autonomous identity-based provincial demarcation, and equal citizenship provision for women marrying Nepali men - have been rejected.

Thapa had discussed the ‘roadmap’ with the Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj in early December during his Delhi visit. India shared the ‘roadmap’ with the leaders of the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), which comprises of four major Madhesi parties: the Upendra Yadav-led Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal, Mahanta Thakur-led Terai Madhes Democratic party, Rajendra Mahato-led Sadbhawana Party and Mahendra Raya Yadav-led Terai Madhes Sadbhawana Party. The UDMF leaders were also invited to New Delhi to discuss the issue.

Kamal Thapa’s ‘roadmap’ commits the passage of two amendments tabled by the Nepali Congress. The amendments would include the term ‘proportional inclusion’ in all the state organs, and guarantee constituencies based on population as proposed by the Madhesi parties. On the issues of delineating the federal boundaries, the ‘roadmap’ proposed a political mechanism that would revise the boundaries based on expert opinion and peoples’ sentiments within a three-month time frame. However, the leaders of the UDMF see three major flaws with the ‘roadmap’.

First, the two amendments tabled in the parliament are vague; it does not replicate the language of the interim constitution, nor does it guarantee the constituencies based on population. It is also silent on the issues of inclusion, while the Madhesis wants only marginalised groups to be eligible for reservation benefits. Second, the Madhesi leaders seek “immediate commitment” on the demarcation of federal boundaries, and third, the issue of citizenship is not addressed. Hence, they have publicly denounced the ‘roadmap’.

Implications for India

Analysts state that if the legitimate demands of the Madhesis are not addressed through peaceful means, it is likely to have three possible consequences: one, loss of faith in the non-violent movement would radicalise the youth of Terai and direct their energies towards armed action; two, the separatists’ agenda will gain traction, leading to the demand for a separate nation and not just an autonomous province as it stands now, and three, evolution of communal violence between the Pahadis and the Madhesis.

The growing instability and radicalisation in Madhes will have direct implications for the peace and security of India. There will be accentuated cross-border crimes such as arms smuggling, fake currency trade, human trafficking, as well as terrorist activities through the 1800 km long open border between the two countries. The enhanced tension would invite the role and attention of other players such as the EU, the US, China and Pakistan. These will have far deeper and lasting implications for India’s security.

India has been a part of all the major political transformations in Nepal, be it 1950, 1990 or 2006. India was also witness to the agreement of 2008 signed between the agitating Madhesis and the Government of Nepal. India must not shy away from its responsibilities now. It could work to create a favourable environment where the legitimate and previously agreed to demands of the Madhesis are met, which can eventually create conditions for peace in Nepal as well as on the Indo-Nepalese border.

Protests have intensified in the past couple of days as the state has begun to repress the peaceful agigation mounted by the Madhesis, by arresting their district level leaders. The people of Madhes are highly determined and dedicated to achieving success for their movement, called the “aar ya paar ki ladai.” The signing of any unacceptable deal by the leaders of UDMF will not halt the protests or end the blockade. People have continued to protest for more than four months in the winter even though more than 55 have been brutally killed. The government’s decision of overcoming this problem through the use of force will only make the situation worse.

10 Good Things About the Not-So-Great Year 2015

Medea Benjamin

It would certainly be easy to do a piece about 10 horrible events from 2015, from the ongoing war in Syria and the refugee crisis, to the bombings in Beirut, Paris and San Bernardino, to the rise of Donald Trump and Islamophobia. But that wouldn’t be a very inspiring way to bid farewell to this year and usher in a new one. So let’s look at 10 reasons to feel better about 2015.

1. Iran nuclear deal: Despite significant political opposition and millions of dollars spent to try to quash the deal, the nuclear agreement with Iran was passed and the possibility of another US military entanglement was narrowly avoided. The powerful lobby AIPAC had its wings clipped, as did Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu (except that the deal unfortunately came with a payoff of even more US tax dollars going to the Israeli military).

2. Cuba thaw: It’s official! The US and Cuba now have embassies in each other’s territory for the first time in over half a century. The year has been marked by a UN meeting between Castro and Obama, more travelers to Cuba and more trade between both countries — but Congress still needs to lift the trade embargo, fully lift the travel ban, and return the Guantanamo naval base to the Cubans!

3. Keystone pipeline ain’t happenin’. After years of stellar grassroots activism against the Keystone pipeline (and years of lobbying by the oil companies), President Obama finally took the side of the activists (and the planet) by shutting down the project. And while the Paris climate talks did not result in the dramatic commitments we need to stop global climate chaos, they did raise consciousness and move the global community in the right direction.

4. The Black Lives Matter movement gets results. This incredible uprising has forced issues of racial injustice into the national spotlight and created real reforms within communities across the country. The Movement for Black Lives got its momentum in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri and spread throughout the nation. Cops have been convicted, police chiefs have been ousted, citizen review boards have been empowered, confederate flags have come down, buildings named after racists have been renamed, presidential candidates have been forced to talk about race. Kudos to the many young black activists leading the way.

5. Canada welcomes refugees. While Donald Trump threatens to ban Muslims from the US, newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau showed the rest of the world how a country can open its doors –– and hearts –– to Syrian refugees. Trudeau and other smiling officials welcomed the first batch of Syrian refugees with flowers, toys, clothing, goodwill and the heartfelt declaration, “You are home.” “We get to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome in people who are fleeing extraordinarily difficult situations…because we definea Canadian not by a skin color or a language or a religion or a background, but by a shared set of values, aspirations, hopes and dreams,” Trudeau proclaimed.

6. Jeremy Corbyn heads UK Labor Party! Running on an anti-war, anti-austerity, and pro-refugee platform, longtime progressive parliamentarian Jeremy Corbyn earned a whopping 59% of his party’s votes. In an interview with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, Corbyn voiced his support for diplomacy and his aversion to airstrikes in the Middle East: “I want a world of peace. I’m not interested in bombs. I’m not interested in wars. I’m interested in peace.” Wouldn’t that be nice to hear from Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi?

7. Same-sex marriage was legalized in the US! In a landmark and long-awaited decision, the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage a federal right. On June 26, the LGBTQ community and its allies rejoiced and took the streets to celebrate the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. While there have been some minor setbacks since then (primarily due to bigots like Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis), there is no turning back now.

8. Ten years of BDS wins. The non-violent, non-sectarian, Palestinian-led movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel has seen a decade of victories. Key this year was the decision by the European Union that goods produced on land seized in the 1967 war must be labeled “Made in Settlements” (not “Made in Israel”), which will deprive Israel the corresponding tax benefits. The former Israeli intelligence chief Shabtai Shavit is convinced that BDS has become a “critical” challenge to Israel, while the former prime minister Ehud Barak admits it is reaching a “tipping point.” In a desperate attempt to counter the momentum of BDS, Israeli Embassy officials in DC sent holiday gifts exclusively made in settlements to the White House this year.

9. Marijuana becomes mainstream. What a year of momentum to end our country’s disastrous war on drugs and mass incarceration. Marijuana is now legal in Colorado, Washington. Alaska, Oregon and Washington D.C., California and others will hit the ballot box in 2016 to hopefully push us past the tipping point on marijuana legalization. President Obama, the first president to visit a prison, spoke out forcefully against mass incarceration and for criminal justice reform, and is helping formerly incarcerated people re-enter society by “banning the box” for those applying for federal jobs.

10. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign! The energy that Bernie has mobilized, especially among young progressives, has been phenomenal. While the media is obsessed with Donald Trump, droves of people have been flocking to hear Bernie talk about breaking up big banks, a financial transaction tax to make college education free, single-payer healthcare and other ideas to make our society more just. Wouldn’t it be great if this movement could continue after the race is over?

So while this holiday season the nation is obsessed with the latest Donald Trump insult and the special effects of Star Wars, may we bring in the new year truly striking back at the injustices of the empire. May the force be with the grassroots activists trying to build a more peaceful world.

Saudi Arabia, The Mainspring of Islamic Radicalism

Nauman Sadiq

If we look at the evolution of Islamic religion and culture throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, it hasn’t been natural. Some deleterious mutations have occurred somewhere which have negatively impacted the Islamic societies all over the world. Social selection (or social conditioning) plays the same role in the social sciences which the natural selection plays in the biological sciences: that is, it selects the traits, norms and values which are most beneficial to the host culture. Seen from this angle, social diversity is a desirable quality for social progress; because when diverse customs and value-systems compete with each other, the culture retains the beneficial customs and values and discards the deleterious traditions and habits.

A decentralized and unorganized religion, like Sufi Islam, engenders diverse strains of beliefs and thoughts which compete with one another for gaining social acceptance and currency. A highly centralized and tightly organized religion, on the other hand, depends more on authority and dogma rather than value and utility. A centralized religion is also more ossified and less adaptive to change compared to a decentralized religion.

When we look at the phenomena of religious extremism and the consequent militancy and terrorism in the Af-Pak region in particular and the Islamic world in general, it is not a natural evolution of religion, some deleterious mutations have occurred somewhere which have negatively affected the whole of Islamic world. Most Pakistani political commentators blame the Pakistani security establishment for deliberate promotion of religious extremism and militancy throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s in order to create a Jihadi narrative which suited the institutional interests and strategic objectives of the Pakistani military.

There is no denying of this evident fact that the Pakistani security establishment had wantonly nurtured Islamic radicalism and militancy in the Af-Pak region but the Pakistani military’s support for Islamic jihadism during the Cold War is only one factor in an array of factors in order to reach a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena of Islamic radicalism and the agents that are responsible for it; because the phenomena of Islamic extremism is not limited to the Af-Pak region, the whole of Islamic world from Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria to Indonesia, Malaysia and even the Muslim minorities of Thailand, China and Philippines have also become the victims of this phenomena and obviously the region-specific security establishments do not have any influence over all the geographically separate and remote regions of the Islamic world.

In my opinion, the real culprit behind the rise of Islamic extremism and jihadism in the Islamic world is Saudi Arabia. The “Aal-e-Saud” (the descendants of Saud) have no hereditary claim to “the Throne of Mecca” since they are not the descendants of the prophet, nor even from the tribe of Quresh (there is a throne of Mecca which I will explain later.) They were the most primitive and marauding nomadic tribesmen of Najd who defeated the Sharifs of Mecca violently after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War. Their title to the throne of Saudi Arabia is only de facto and not de jure, since neither do they have a hereditary claim to the Saudi monarchy nor do they hold elections to ascertain the will of the Saudi people. Thus, they are the illegitimate rulers of Saudi Arabia and they feel insecure because of their illegitimacy, a fact which explains their heavy-handed and brutal tactics in dealing with any kind of dissent, opposition or movement for reform in Saudi Arabia.

The phenomena of religious extremism and jihadism all over the Islamic world is directly linked to the Wahhabi-Salafi madrassahs which are generously funded by the Saudi and Gulf’s petro-dollars. These madrassahs attract children from the most impoverished backgrounds in the Third World Islamic countries because they offer the kind of incentives and facilities which even the government-sponsored public schools cannot provide: such as, free boarding and lodging, no tuition fee at all, and free of cost books and stationery.

Apart from madrassahs, another factor that promotes the Wahhabi-Salafi ideology in the Islamic world is the ritual of Hajj and Umrah (the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.) Every year millions of Muslim men and women travel from all over the Islamic world to perform the pilgrimage in order to wash their sins. When they return home to their native countries after spending a month or two in Saudi Arabia, along with clean hearts and souls, dates and “zamzam,” they also bring along the tales of Saudi hospitality and their “true” and puritanical version of Islam, which some Muslims, especially the rural-tribal folk, find attractive and worth-emulating.

Authority plays an important role in any thought system; the educated people accept the authority of the specialists in their respective field of specialty; similarly, the lay folk accept the authority of the theologians and clerics in the interpretation of religion and scriptures. Aside from authority, certain other factors also play a part in an individuals’ psychology: like, purity or the concept of sacred, and originality and authenticity, as in the concept of being closely corresponding to an ideal or authentic model. Just like the modern naturalists who prefer organic food and natural habits and lifestyles, because of their supposed belief in “the essential goodness of nature” (naturalistic fallacy,) or due to their disillusionment from the man-made fiascoes, the religious folks also prefer a true version of Islam which is closer to the putative authentic Islam as practiced in Mecca and Medina: “the Gold Standard of Petro-Islam.”

Yet another factor which contributes to the rise of Wahhabi-Salafi ideology throughout the Islamic world is the immigrant factor. Millions of Muslim men, women and families from all over the Third World Islamic countries live and work in the energy-rich Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait and Oman. Some of them permanently reside there but mostly they work on temporary work permits. Just like the pilgrims, when they come back to their native villages and towns, they also bring along the tales of Arab hospitality and their version of “authentic Islam.” Spending time in Arab countries entitles one to pass authoritative judgments on religious matters, and having a cursory understanding of Arabic, the language of Quran, makes one equivalent of a Qazi (a learned jurist) among the illiterate village folk; and they simply reproduce the customs and attitudes of the Arabs as an authentic version of Islam to their communities.

The Shi’a Muslims have their Imams and Marjahs (religious authorities) but it is generally assumed about Sunni Islam that it discourages the authority of the clergy. In this sense, Sunni Islam is closer to Protestantism, at least theoretically, because it prefers an individual and personal interpretation of scriptures and religion. It might be true for the educated Sunni Muslims but on a popular level of the masses of the Third World Islamic countries “the House of Saud” plays the same role in Sunni Islam that the Pope plays in Catholicism. By virtue of their physical possession of the holy places of Islam – Mecca and Medina – they are the ex officio “Caliphs of Islam.” The title of the Saudi King: “Khadim-ul-Haramain-al-Shareefain” (Servant of the House of God), makes him a vice-regent of God on Earth; and the title of “the Caliph of Islam” is not limited to a single nation state, he wields enormous influence throughout “the Commonwealth of Islam: the Muslim Ummah.”

Now, when we hear slogans like “no democracy, just Islam” on the streets of the Third World Islamic countries, one wonders that what kind of an imbecile would forgo his right to choose one’s government through a democratic and electoral process? This confusion about democracy is partly due to the fact that the masses often conflate democracy with liberalism without realizing that democracy is only a political process of choosing one’s representatives and legislators through an electoral process, while liberalism is a cultural mindset which may or may not be suitable for a backward Third World society depending on its existing level of social evolution. From an evolutionary perspective a bottom-up, gradual and incremental social change is more conducive and easily adoptable compared to a top-down, sudden and radical approach.

One feels dumbfounded, however, when even some educated Muslims argue that democracy is un-Islamic and that an ideal Islamic system of governance is Caliphate. Such an ideal Caliphate could be some Umayyad or Abbasid model that they conjure up in their minds, but in practice the only beneficiaries of such an anti-democratic approach are the illegitimate tyrants of the Arab World who claim to be the Caliphs of Islam albeit indirectly and in a nuanced manner: that is, the Servants of the House of God and the Keepers of the Holy places of Islam.

The illegitimate, and hence insecure, tyrants adopt different strategies to maintain and prolong their hold on power. They readily adopt the pragmatic advice of Machiavelli to his patrons: “Invent enemies and then slay them in order to control your subjects.” The virulently anti-Shi’a rhetoric of the Gulf-based Wahhabi-Salafi preachers, who are on the payroll of the Gulf’s petro-monarchies, appears to be a cunning divide-and-rule strategy on the lines of Machiavelli. The Arab petro-sheikhs cannot construct a positive narrative that can delineate their achievements, that’s why they espouse a negative narrative that casts the “evil Other” in a bad light.

The Sunni-Shi’a conflict is essentially a political and economic conflict which is presented to the lay Muslims in a veneer of religiosity. Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest “proven” petroleum reserves, 265 billion barrels, and its daily crude oil production is 10 million barrels (equivalent to 15% of the global crude oil production.) However, 90 % of the Saudi petroleum reserves and infrastructure is situated along the Persian Gulf, but this sparsely populated region comprises the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia which has a significant and politically active Shi’a minority. Any separatist tendency in this Achilles heel of Saudi Arabia is met with sternest possible reaction. Saudi Arabia sent thousands of its own troops to help the Bahraini regime quell the Shi’a rebellion in the wake of “the Arab Spring” uprisings in the Shi’a-majority Bahrain, which is also geographically very close to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

Al-Qaeda inspired terrorism is a threat to the Western countries but the Islamic countries are encountering a much bigger threat of inter-sectarian conflict. For centuries the Sunni and Shi’a Muslims have coexisted in relative peace throughout the Islamic World but now certain vested interests are deliberately stoking the fire of inter-sectarian strife to distract attention away from the Home Front: that is, the popular movements for democracy and enfranchisement in the Arab World.

Islam is regarded as the fastest growing religion of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are two factors that are primarily responsible for this atavistic phenomena of Islamic resurgence: firstly, unlike Christianity which is more idealistic, Islam is a more practical religion, it does not demands from its followers to give up worldly pleasures but only aims to regulate them; and secondly, Islam as a religion and political ideology has the world’s richest financiers. After the 1973 collective Arab oil embargo against the West in the wake of the Arab-Israeli war, the price of oil quadrupled; the Arab petro-sheikhs now have so much money that they don’t know where to spend it? This is the reason why we are witnessing an exponential growth of Islamic charities and madrassas all over the world and especially in the Islamic World.

Although the Arab sheikhs of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and some emirates of UAE, excluding the comparatively liberal Dubai, generally sponsor the Wahhabi-Salafi brand of Islam but the differences between numerous sects of Sunni Islam are more nominal than substantive. The Islamic charities and madrassas belonging to all the Sunni denominations get generous funding from the Gulf Arab states as well as private donors. Therefore, the genie of petro-Islamic extremism cannot be contained until and unless that financial pipeline is cut off. And to do that we need to promote the moderate democratic forces in the Arab world even if they are moderately Islamic.

The moderate and democratic Islamism is different from the monarcho-theocratic Islamism of the Gulf variety, because the latter is an illegitimate and hence an insecure regime; to maintain its hold on power it needs subterfuges and external rivals to keep the oppositional internal threats to its survival under check. Takfirism (labelling others as infidels) and jihadism are a manifestation of this Machiavellian trend. In the nutshell, Islam is only a religion, just like any other cosmopolitan religion, be it Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism; we don’t have to find any ‘exceptionalist’ justifications to explain the phenomena of Islamic resurgence; it’s the petro-Islamic extremism and the consequent phenomena of Takfirism and jihadism, which is like a collision of the continental tectonic plates that has engulfed the whole of Islamic world from the Middle East and North Africa region to Af-Pak and Southeast Asia.

Some people are under the impression that democracy and Islam are inconsistent. But I don’t see any contradiction between democracy and Islam, as such. Though, I admit that there is some friction between Islam and liberalism. When we say that there is a contradiction between Islam and democracy, we make “a category mistake” which is a very serious logical fallacy. There is a big difference between democracy and liberalism. Democracy falls under the category of politics while liberalism falls in the category of culture. We must be precise about the definitions of the terms that we employ.

Democracy is simply a representative political system that ensures representation, accountability, the right of the electorate to vote governments in and to vote governments out. In this sense when we use the term democracy we simply mean a multi-party representative political system that confers legitimacy upon a government which comes to power through an election process which is a contest between more than one political parties in order to ensure that it is voluntary. Thus democracy is nothing more than a multi-party representative political system.

Democracy is not the best of systems because it is the most efficient political system. Top-down authoritarian dictatorships are more efficient than democracies. But democracy is a representative political system that brings about grass roots social change. Enfranchisement, representation, transparency, accountability, checks and balances, rule of law and the consequent institution-building, nation-building and consistent long-term policies are the hallmarks of a representative and democratic political system.

Immanuel Kant had famously said that moral autonomy produces moral responsibility and maturity. In my opinion this axiom also applies to politics and governance. Political autonomy, democracy and self-governance leads to political responsibility and social maturity. A top-down political system is dependent on the artificial, external force that keeps it going. The moment you remove that force, the society reverts back to its old state and the system collapses. But a grass roots, bottom-up political system evolves naturally and intrinsically. We must not expect from the movements for democracy and enfranchisement in the Arab World to produce results immediately. The evolution of the Western culture took place over a course of many centuries; the movements for political reform in the Arab World are only the beginning of a long and arduous journey.

In order to explain this phenomena by way of an allegory, democracy is like a school and people are like children. We only have two choices: one, to keep the people under paternalistic dictatorships; two, to enroll them in the school of representative democracy and let them experience democracy as a lived reality rather than some stale and sterile theory. The first option will only produce half-witted retards, but the second option will give birth to an educated human resource that doesn’t just consume resources but also creates new resources. We are on a historic juncture in the Arab World in particular and the Islamic World in general. This is the beginning of a new era; this is the beginning of the Islamic Renaissance and Enlightenment.