I am in Tbilisi at the moment, where I spent this early morning drinking tea with some of the 2,000 strong Yazidi community. They see their religion as much more closely descended from Zoroastrianism than appears in most accounts I have read.
I very much enjoyed a visit to Tsinandali which was most useful for gaining a Russian perspective of the Great Game. I don’t have my books with me and am suffering a mental block as to whether it was Connoly, Abbott or Malcolm who visited Tsinandali. I had not realised that Griboyedov was married to a daughter of the house, Nina Chavchavadze. The murder of Griboyedov, Russian Ambassador in Tehran, by a mob rates little more than a footnote in British accounts of the Great Game, even though the British had bribed the religious authority to stir up the riots. What revisionist history there has been, has come from the Iranian side and falsely tried to obscure the fact that the refugees Griboyedov was sheltering were runaway slaves from harems.
This is a neglected recurring theme. When Shuja agreed the treaty already negotiated between Macnaghten and Ranjit Singh, the main stipulation he sought to add was that the British would return to him any runaway slave girls. The immediate motive for the ringleader of the attack on Alexander Burnes was that Burnes had refused to intervene to return a runaway slave girl who had sought the protection of another British officer. My fellow anti-imperialist historians have in general been guilty of emphasising rapaciousness by the British in these incidents and overlooking or excusing the slave status of the girls. Both aspects need to be faced squarely to write honestly the full facts of history. Tellingly, it is generally impossible to recover names of the girls involved.
Griboyedov deserves to be remembered for much more than his murder. An accomplished playwright and poet, he was a friend of Pushkin and had links to the dissident groups who attempted revolution in 1825. His murder left Nina a widow at either 17 or 19 by different accounts, and pregnant. She lost the child on hearing of her husband’s death, and never remarried. It is a tragic story which came alive to me in visiting the family home.
Griboyedov had fought Napoleon in the 1812 campaign, but had helped those Napoleonic adventurers Allard and Ventura evade a British blockade and go into service with Ranjit Singh. Griboyedov’s successor as Russian Ambassador to Tehran, Simonicz, had actually fought on the Napoleonic side against Russia, presumably in the Polish Legion. Nina’s sister was to marry a Murad nephew of Napoleon. The political elites of Europe melded quickly after the convulsion.
With which clumsy segue I shall note that the battle against the entrenched political elites of the UK appears to be going extremely well without me. I cannot express without a welling up of real emotion how happy I am that all I have been saying about the stultifying neo-liberal consensus and exclusion of dissent, and appalling burgeoning wealth gap between rich and poor, has found such massive traction between Jeremy Corbyn in England and the SNP in Scotland. I may have gone AWOL for a few days, but the cause of social justice appears in extremely safe hands.
Campaign Against the Arms Trade
‘It starts here. Let’s stop it.
This September, the world’s largest arms fair is due to take place in London (ExCeL) from 15-18 September: Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI). The arms fair involves more than 1000 companies and 30,000 attendees, and its results are felt around the world as people are killed, economies are devastated, refugees are traumatised and peaceful protest is crushed.
War starts here: Despite Israel’s brutal attacks on Gaza last summer, it will host a pavilion at the arms fair to market its “battle-tested” weapons.
Repression starts here: Despite UK-made weaponry being used to suppress protests in Bahrain during the Arab Spring, the country’s brutal rulers were among 14 authoritarian regimes invited by the UK government to shop for weapons at DSEI 2013.
Environmental destruction starts here: Real security involves tackling the causes of problems, not creating more. Climate change is one of the biggest threats that we face yet the UK government spends 25 times more on weapons research than research into renewable energy.
Because it starts here, we can stop it here.’
Details and suggestions for action –
https://crm.caat.org.uk/civicrm/mailing/view?reset=1&id=145
His favourite quote is “Give me the man I will find the crime”.
John Goss Meant to say thanks for the petition link. I have signed.
22,058 signatures so far. That means HMG has to respond.
Petition
Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested for war crimes when he arrives in London
Benjamin Netanyahu is to hold talks in London this September. Under international law he should be arrested for war crimes upon arrival in the U.K for the massacre of over 2000 civilians in 2014
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105446
He will be hoping to attend the Arms Fair no doubt.
Mary,
“Climate change is one of the biggest threats that we face”
I think that the biggest threat we (humans) face is selfishness and consumerism. Get rid of that and you solve 1000nds of other issues by default.
Both are very much associated with WASPs.
Look at it this way.
In Excel one African/Middle Eastern dictator will spend 1 billion on buying some sophisticated guns. They will slaughter few thousand people (more likely many more) so that corporation (most likely) run by WASP could drain mineral recourses from the land this dictator governs for the sake of shareholders and wider society where the corporation is registered. (most likely) WASP government where this corporation is registered will then claim that this corporation is big business and pays billions in taxes and also employs thousands of people (most likely WASPs), so their well being is good for the nation.
The question is who is getting fu..ked in all this money/guns turnover? Certainly not WASPs, not that bad at least.
Uzbek
I earnestly request you to cease your derogatory posts about that judicial monster A. Vishinskiy.
Not that I approve of the man, of course, it’s just that I’m afraid that if you carry on we’ll soon get Mr Goss on here defending him and the rest of the Little Father’s gang.
“Russia has official parliament too you know. It consists of 2 houses with total number of deputies/senators of 650. You need to add here local parliaments – 22 regions of Russia have republican parliaments with total number of deputies of over 6000.”
__________________
All very interesting Uzbek, as I recall between you and Mr Goss, you have a bee in your bonnet so to speak over Russia, I suppose that’s why you chose them as a example, fair enough.
The UK has also a Welsh/NI and Scottish government as well, boosting offical numbers in their regions, of course lets not go off on a tangent so to speak and stick to the main point, that the Houses of Parliament are far too overcrowded for such a small country as Britain.
Mary,
Did you know that average WASP consumes 20 times more than average Ethiopian? I am not just counting calories.
Habbabkuk, I don’t seem to have a reply from you. You do wish to engage in sensible discussion, right? Last asking. It’s a discursive point, but well worth chewing on, and I’m interested in a range of views. Creating the elusive ‘perfect democracy’ is hard, but we should try.
Daniel,
I don’t agree with this notion. The Israeli government can be regarded as malicious, sure, because an unrestrained power elite in most countries abuse power. However, there is nothing inherently “Israeli” about their malice – it is not of a different kind to the malice displayed when any powerful entity abuses its position for selfish ends. Equally, there is nothing “Jewish” about it.
Jewishness is different to other religions in that it has a hereditary component – one cannot convert to being a Jew. Thus recognising the existence of “Jewish malice” is a rather racialist concept in which Jewish people are identified as being particularly susceptible of negative traits – perhaps genetically? It would rather be akin to believing in a thing called “black malice”, which I think is correctly regarded as unacceptable rhetoric.
As I earlier suggested, if racism or violence against the Palestinians is being conflated with Jewish identity, then we should call the speaker a liar. There are plenty of Jewish people – including Leftist groups within Israel itself – who oppose the occupation.
Habbabkuk
Sorry he just came into my mind after reading provocative rhetorical question from Mary.
I think that even Goss is not that ignorant as to defend the monster who publicly humiliated some good but naïve communists before sending them for painful and shameful executions.
“Petition
Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested for war crimes when he arrives in London
Benjamin Netanyahu is to hold talks in London this September. Under international law he should be arrested for war crimes upon arrival in the U.K for the massacre of over 2000 civilians in 2014”
________________________
This is merely the vexatious sort of stunt which obliged the UK govt to change the law on universal jurisdiction and the issuance of arrest warrants iro foreign politician and govt officials a couple of years ago.
It is vexatious, silly and has no chance whatsoever of being taken seriously, never mind succeeding.
Uzbek
“I think that even Goss is not that ignorant as to defend the monster who publicly humiliated some good but naïve communists before sending them for painful and shameful executions.”
____________________
Never underestimate the ignorance (usually deliberate) of some of the “commenters” on here.
Why, the man still believes that the missing Malaysian airliner and its passengers and crew were hijacked to Diego Garcia.
Republicofscotland
UK is only twice smaller than Russia (by population) and is 2nd largest nation in the EU (after Germany).
We can of course talk only about british and Chinese unelected officials but this does not mean that those only countries have dead waste (as you called them) on peoples’ books. Former soviet union (inspiration for MWL) had and still has many more (truly) unelected officials who enjoy benefits of the society for nothing in return (in systems like in former soviet union they serve as rubber stamp for their master).
Please stop trolling me Uzbek. As with the other trolls on here, I am not interested and will not be responding.
Jon
“Habbabkuk, I don’t seem to have a reply from you. You do wish to engage in sensible discussion, right? Last asking.”
______________________
Don’t worry about it, Jon. I will confess that I have not looked up your question (but I will, just out of interest), preferring to comment on Bevin’s rather long polemic (for my comments see above).
If your question is of a practical nature, I may reply to it. If, however, it involves a series of abstractions of a theoretical nature, I won’t.
Uzbek
“Please stop trolling me Uzbek”
____________________
You will understand, Uzbek, that replying to her or questioning her points of view constitutes trolling in Mary’s Hilde Benjamin view of the world.
“Apart from Sir Brian nominated for his services to homophobia.”
___________________
Brian Soutar, is neither a MP representing Scottish interests or a SNP MP
As for Soutar and homophobia, like you he’s entitled to his opinion, I dont necessarily agree with him.
At least Souter didn’t collude with a Serbian warlord (who was wanted for genocide) then donate blood money to Better Together, you know of whom I speak of Sir Ian
Jon
Have looked back a little. Were you referring to your post yesterday at 15h39? If so, I see a number of points but no question addressed to me.
“Brian Soutar, is neither a MP representing Scottish interests or a SNP MP”
He was nominated for a knighthood by Alex Salmond after making large donations to the party
UK 64.1 million (2013)
Russia 143.5 million (2013)
Slightly more than double Uzbek, but what’s your point? Anyway you cut it on a official capacity the British government is way to top heavy,.
David Cameron has a full term to run by the time his tenure is up they’ll be a 1000 unelected Lords in a supposed democracy.
I was wondering if we could dump all those fat greedy Lords in the Aral sea, that’s if it’s not dried up yet?
I have tried to find that Vyshinsky quote on line, Googling “вышинский дайте мне человека”, and nothing turned up. The familiar imperative “вышинский дайте мне человека” didn’t find anything either. The line is quoted in the English-language Wikipedia entry on Vyshinsky, citing a Polish source. It turns out the full sentence in Polish is: „dajcie mi człowieka, a paragraf się znajdzie”. How well established is it that Vyshinksy (by origin a Pole) actually said this? I would feel more comfortable if I could find the sentence cited in Russian.
Oops. The form with the familiar imperative is: “вышинский дай мне человека”, but under that I also found nothing.
Jon
10/08/2015 5:14pm
“Jewishness is different to other religions in that it has a hereditary component – one cannot convert to being a Jew.”
Not so. It’s quite possible to formally convert to Judaism.
Kind regards,
John
I thought as much. He’s stopping off here before going on to Washington. Wasted journeys Bibi. Stay at home and sort out your terror state.
Netanyahu to meet with UK’s Cameron in September — report
Prime minister to discuss Iran nuke deal in London before heading to New York for UN General Assembly
http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-to-meet-with-uks-cameron-in-september-report/
30 July 2015
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has injected himself forcefully into this debate on American foreign policy in Washington.
Can you recall a time when a foreign head of government has done that? Is it appropriate for a foreign head of government to inject himself into an American debate?” Zakaria asked.
Obama responded, “I do not recall a similar example.”
He added: “Obviously the relationship between the US and Israel is deep. It is profound. It is reflected in my policies. But as I said in the speech yesterday on the substance, the prime minister is wrong on this.
“I can show that basic assumptions he has made are incorrect. If in fact my argument is right, that this is the best way for Iran not to get a nuclear weapon, that is not just good for the United States, that is very good for Israel.”
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran/Obama-Netanyahu-only-foreign-leader-I-can-recall-forcibly-interfering-in-US-policy-411572
9 August 2015
“He was nominated for a knighthood by Alex Salmond after making large donations to the party”
_____________
Fred that would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.
The House of Lords is packed to the rafters with people who’ve given huge donations to political parties.
Jon @5.14
I’m still waiting for you to substantiate your assertion that “most Jews in London and increasingly the US are recognising Israel as a rogue state.”
75%, or thereabouts, of the population of the self-proclaimed Jewish State of Israel are Jewish. 91% of Israeli Jews support Israel’s campaign against the people of Gaza and just 4.2% believe the operation is a “mistake. 77% of Israeli Jews polled “very strong support” for Operation Protective Edge’s airstrikes on Gaza. Just 1.5% of respondents opposed the airstrikes:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183441#.VcjaEnFVikp
That seems pretty malicious to me. Incidentally, the left in Israel isn’t any kind of left we would recognise here.
John Spencer-Davis,
Thanks, I did not know it was possible to convert to Judaism without the matriarchal connection. Nevertheless, I don’t think it invalidates my point – I was trying to illustrate there is nothing inherently Jewish about abuse of elite power. Either this is a belief in genetic inferiority, in which case it is on risky racialist grounds, or it is saying there is something in Jewish culture or belief that is inherently violent or corrupt. I do not agree with either interpretation.
On the Left we do not tolerate this in relation to Islamophobic positions, so my view is that we should not tolerate it with Anti-Semitic views either. Separating out (and condemning) the violence of Israel is perfectly possible without fuelling the belief that Israel is always the victim of racism.
Thanks Daniel, much appreciated.
I am unfamiliar with those statistics, but I am happy to agree that they are right, and I think 91% of Israeli Jews are wrong on this matter. I think they have been propagandised, which I also condemn.
I am happy to agree that the 91% subgroup have been persuaded of a malicious view (support for violence and murder). I don’t know if I would agree that all people in that subgroup are malicious, that’s quite a leap. Some people don’t know any better, some people are easily led – this is human nature we’re talking about.
But, let us conduct a thought experiment. Let us suggest that all of those people, agreeing with a malicious campaign and supporting it, are themselves malicious (not provable, but let us assume it has been proved). Can we then ascribe that view to their Jewishness, and if so, why? Is there a genetic or cultural flaw in Jewishness that makes that subgroup susceptible to violence?
Here’s an interesting one. One of the first police constabularies in Britain or its territories to say they would investigate Edward Heath in relation to allegations of the sexual abuse of children was Wiltshire.
This news was then swamped with stories of how now it’s five police areas, now six, now seven.
We all know Edward Heath lived in Wiltshire.
But not so many people know that Wiltshire was also the constabulary that helped the Jersey authorities keep concealed the real reasons that they suspended the Jersey chief of police, Grahame Power, who was looking far too closely for their liking at Haut de la Garenne.
From Voice For Children, a website by some anti-coverup citizen journalists on Jersey:
(4 Aug 2015)
“The Wiltshire Constabulary were very “helpful” to the Jersey Authorities by dragging out their investigation for so long that it would be impossible to test their evidence against Mr. Power’s.
But what we didn’t know (because Wiltshire kept it quiet) was that they look to have covered up claims of abuse made against former Prime Minister Ted Heath, who was a regular visitor to Jersey. The disgraced Wiltshire Constabulary, who stand accused of complicity in the Jersey Child Abuse cover-up, are, or have been, under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission for a number of alleged “offences” due to its handling, (or lack of) abuse claims HERE and the Ted Heath claims HERE.
Brian Moore Senior Investigating Officer (Operation Haven 1) was then seconded, from Wilts, to become interim head of the UK Boarder Agency, with the apparent intention of taking up the full time post. He then stepped down IN DISGRACE from the UKBA.
Regular readers of this Blog will remember Best-Selling author and Journalist Leah McGrath Goodman was BANNED from the UK and Jersey after it became apparent she was investigating the child abuse, and POSSIBLE MURDER at Haut De la Garenne. She was detained at Heathrow Airport on 11 September 2011 where she was held in a cell for 12 hours, not allowed to contact ANYBODY in that time, it was eight hours before she was even asked a question. Terrorists/criminals do not get treated so appallingly, and who was at that time the Interim Head at the UKBA (a month before he stood down)? None other than Brian Moore former Chief of Wilts police and Senior Investigating Officer Operation Haven 1.”
The article at VFC is well worth a look, and contains more links than I have hyperlinked above.
Contrary to myth, Jersey is not populated only, or even mainly, by the tax-dodging super-rich. Most people there are decent and not rich and have a deep distrust of anything the authorities say about Haut de la Garenne. Leah McGrath Goodman – now allowed back to Britain and Jersey – gets a lot of people coming up to her wanting to shake her hand, in thanks for the work she has done to expose the individuals who committed such horrendous crimes against children at Haut de la Garenne.
VFC continue:
“There is a large amount of media attention surrounding the allegations against former Prime Minister Edward Heath. As mentioned earlier in this posting he was a regular visitor to Jersey and guest of former President of Jersey Defence Committee (in charge of the police) Mike Wavell who ran, or owned, the Waters Edge Hotel at Bouley Bay where Heath’s yacht would be moored up in the bay.
Indeed Heath was such a regular visitor to the island, in the final months of his life, we can exclusively reveal, that the States Of Jersey Police were involved with plans for his security and the arrangements which would have to be made should he die in Jersey.
The Heath story will sell “news”papers and make for attention grabbing headlines in the media. But for those who are interested in getting to the bottom of what is increasingly looking like a powerful UK (including Jersey) paedophile ring and how they are able to operate with impunity, then looking at the actions, and in-actions, of police forces like Wiltshire (and Jersey pre November 2008 and post November 2008).
Heath might be “The Headline” but he is NOT the story.
“The House of Lords is packed to the rafters with people who’ve given huge donations to political parties.”
Yes but nobody’s been pretending that their shit doesn’t smell.
Habbabkuk, 3:29 pm yesterday. No, it’s not an easily parsed question – the whole thing. I am not looking to “win” an argument with you. You’ve been recycling a tired canard about giving the electorate a “free choice” a lot in this thread, and I’d like you to consider the objections to that view, even if you would prefer not to address them.
I understand that you do not like Corbyn’s views, and you think that Britons will choose barely restrained capitalism from either the red or blue party given a free choice. I’ve shown that it is not that simple, given the state of the media, and I have also honestly identified how the Left can tie itself in knots if the theory is taken to excess.