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.
John Kerry paid a flying visit to Sri Lanka in April. Seems they’re coming in from the cold, after a dalliance with China.
New US Embassy.
Base?
Use of ports?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/02/john-kerry-praises-sri-lanka-democratic-reforms-pledges-ties-with-us
It’s not just Corbyn who is capitalizing on people being fed up with establishment politicians. That’s the source of Trump’s surge here in the U.S. And now there’s this: The Hill: Poll: Sanders surges ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire. At the same time that Hillary is being investigated.
I have been listening to John Pilger on this podcast. July 21 2015
http://store.counterpunch.org/john-pilger-episode-12/
This week, CounterPunch Radio host Eric Draitser goes one on one with award winning filmmaker and journalist, the inimitable John Pilger. Eric and John discuss the role of the corporate media in manufacturing narratives, its relationship to capitalism and commodification, and the importance of independent media to pierce through the propaganda. Pilger provides his blistering critique of the especially insidious liberal media whose misinformation and disinformation is so critical to the ruling class. Eric and John touch on an array of other topics including Greece, Ukraine, and debt as a neocolonial weapon. All this and much more on a slightly abbreviated Episode 12 of CounterPunch Radio, featuring as always intro and outtro music from the Dr. of the Blues, the man with a PhD in Boogie Woogie, David Vest.
“We Are on Earth in Order to be Useful; our lifes are short, let’s fill them with doing good”
http://www.pappaspost.com/video-we-are-on-earth-in-order-to-be-useful-lesvos-village-priests-story-of-helping-thousands-of-refugees/
So, the allegations against Julian Assange become statute barred next week.
Is this correct?
The Swedes and their Western chums seem to be trying to spin the idea that Julian has been avoiding them these past few years, and now he’s going to get away with it.
They could have interviewed him at the embassy at any time.
They’ve interviewed something like 40 people in the UK over that period.
If you didn’t know the whole thing was a frame up before, now you do.
A real class act, those Swedes, eh.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/sweden-loses-hope-of-imminent-breakthrough-in-julian-assange-inquiry-1439393372
China is stuttering.
John Kerry is talking about the end of the dollar as reserve currency, were they not to go ahead with the Iran deal.
Europe’s eating itself.
Old lefties are popping up all over the place.
What can it mean.
Pulcinella (!!h54)
Thank you for your post at 11h54 this morning, which I read as confirmation, based on your personal experience, that the Tel Aviv beaches are open to and used by Israeli citizens of both Palestinian Arab and Jewish heritage.
This is of course nor surprising since the State of Isrqel is q democracy and not some Middle Eastern version of apartheid South Africa.
Perhaps you should let Captain Komodo (cashiered) know that he was talking nonsense when he claimed the opposite?
//////////////////
On a more sombre note, however, while I am happy that you’ve spent pleasant times on the Tel Aviv beaches, I fear that this information will get you into trouble with the Eminences of BDS on this blog.
Come to think of it, have you not yourself written in favour of BDS on this blog?
Herbie
12/08/2015 6:00pm
My understanding is that he faces 4 charges (rape, sexual molestation, and unlawful coercion x 2). The last 3 will be barred by 18th August this year, but not the rape charge.
I wonder if the Swedish prosecutors have decided to let the charges lapse and blame Ecuador. They had an opportunity to interview Assange in June and cancelled it.
Kind regards,
John
Mary: That was a very good article about the disingenuous neo-con stooge Nick Cohen, thanks for that link.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1439237804.html
Armchair warrior Cohen, with his far-right chickenhawk ravings, is one more reason not to bother buying The Guardian/ Observer any more, I’m sorry to say. After reading articles, page after page, for several weeks now denouncing Corbyn, it has became clear the Guardian group is simply another Establishment mouthpiece. They’ll give voice to the acceptable range of debate, and a few hard-right pieces by the likes of Cohen to temper it, but nothing further.
With the Independent having gone all “Vote Tory!” too, it’s rather tough to find any newspaper worth reading any more.
Lysias You mentioned Sanders. I know little about him but I saw this on the Counterpunch site. The author is not impressed.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/12/why-bernie-sanders-is-no-great-white-hope-for-black-america/
The author’s other work.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=Paul+Street&search-alias=books&field-author=Paul+Street&sort=relevancerank
Another 7,400 signatures have been added since yesterday.
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
Sign this petition
41,580 signatures
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105446
Regarding Sanders and that Counterpunch article: The author is exceedingly ignorant about Sanders, has dredged up a couple of hit-pieces, and keeps claiming he doesn’t know very much about the (supposed) Black Lives Matter (BLM) hijacking of the Sanders rally in Seattle the other day. Maybe he should have researched it just a teeny bit before writing an article this long about it.
I always love it when writers like this set up an utterly unprovable straw man, as in a “young liberal white town woman” said such-and-such to me the other day, before using supposed incident to kick off some denouncement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BnbwUT7lBg
Look up what those stooges claiming to be BLM reps did at that rally – they took over it, demanded to make their point and have 4.5 minutes silence, then – still not satisfied – called Sanders AND the assembled crowd white supremacists and racists until the whole rally got shut down.
These stooges are far-right Christians who were Sarah Palin supporters, by the way – teabaggers in other words.
Sanders is clearly the best hope America (and indeed the world) has had for a progressive turnaround in a very long time. I’d advise you to listen to what he (Sanders) says, not just to look for hit-pieces like that astonishingly one sided and ignorant Counterpunch article.
“Shouldn’t it upset everyone who believes in equality and human rights”
________________.
Sure Fred, I agree, I just thought I’d post it you know how upset you were with Brian.
“I think he’ll do pretty well in the whole of the UK.”
______________
MJ.
Recent Survation and TNS polls suggest Labour won’t do well in Scotland, I hope those polls hold steady till May 2016, and beyond.
Glenn
“Mary: That was a very good article about the disingenuous neo-con stooge Nick Cohen, thanks for that link.”
________________
That’s an interesting take on Nick Cohen – and a surprising one. I recently finished re-reading his 2012 book “You can’t read this book : Censorship in an age of freedom” (dedicated, by the way, to Christopher Hitchens) and there is more than one paragraph in that book which could have come straight from the pen of Craig.
I’ve also read his other books and don’t se how he can be characterised either as disingenuous, a neo-Con or a stooge. Is it his views on Western political correctness wrt to Islamic and other fundamentalisms which you find objectionable?
“Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested for war crimes when he arrives in London…etc. etc
41,580 signatures”
_________________
Which is 58420 signatures short of the 100000 needed for the issue underlying the petition to become eligible for a short debate in the HoC.
Watching the number of signatures rise in almost s exciting as watching the number of comments on one of Craig’s threads approach 1000. And about as significant.
I used to read Nick Cohen’s weekly column in the Observer religiously during the late 1990s. At that time he did some great investigative work. But, alas, it all changed after the invasion of Iraq.
Herbert
“China is stuttering.
John Kerry is talking about the end of the dollar as reserve currency, were they not to go ahead with the Iran deal.
Europe’s eating itself.
Old lefties are popping up all over the place.
What can it mean.”
______________________
I think it means we’re all DOOMED.
Only the most primitive forms of life (amoebae and the like – and Herbie) will survive the coming Armageddon.
I never thought I’d see the day, when someone would create Soylent Green..Jesus, what’s the world coming to.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/could-soylent-replace-food-the-drink-that-claims-to-contain-all-the-nutrients-the-body-needs-9334154.html
Daniel
I think what you really mean is that when he was kicking the early Blair govt he was a good guy and after he supported the Iraq war he became a bad guy.
I suppose I’d be correct in thinking that you liked seeing the Blair govt get a kicking and you were against the Iraq war?
I think Craig’s commented on that kind of thinking on occasion.
JSD
I’m fairly sure Julian Assange hasn’t been charged with anything.
These are alegations. Apparently charges can’t be laid until he’s been interviewed again, which the Swedish authorities resolutely refused to do, insisting instead that he travel to Sweden.
I wasn’t aware that there was a rape alegation, at least not in the sense that it’s understood outside Sweden.
My understanding is that what’s been portrayed in Western media as a rape allegation is in fact one of the other allegations.
The case wasn’t covered very well in western media. More of a lynch mob thing.
I hope he sues those outlets involved.
It was clearly a political witch hunt masquerading as a legal case.
Anyway.
Just another example of the deparavity into which the West has sunk.
Kempe
11 Aug, 2015 – 3:49 pm
According to the SNP Souter was nominated for his knighthood by a totally independent committee of Scottish civil servants without any input from ministers whatsoever…
“Say you believe that and I’ll make sure the tooth fairy leaves you an extra nice sweetie on your pillow tonight.
………………………………………………………….
Kempe
11 Aug, 2015 – 3:56 pm
“An accusation is not proof of guilt, that’s the mentality of the medieval witch hunt or the gutter press…”
…………………………………………………………
So Kempe, you say Ted Heath has a right to his presumed innocence but in your earlier post you imply that the SNP has no right of presumed innocence.
As you say Kempe, “an accusation is not proof of guilt…”
Hypocrite!
“I think it means we’re all DOOMED.”
For once habby, you could be right.
Habbabkuk is on the night shift again as he was last night.
Glenn I said to Lysias that I knew little about Sanders. The article was put up for info. No need to kick me so hard in the shins.
Fred
12 Aug, 2015 – 3:10 pm
“Is Craig a neonazi?”
“Some of his followers seem to have remarkably similar attributes.”
…………………………………………………………….
There you go again Fred; making statements without any back-up or evidence.
Habbabkuk: “I’ve also read his other books and don’t se how he can be characterised either as disingenuous, a neo-Con or a stooge. Is it his views on Western political correctness wrt to Islamic and other fundamentalisms which you find objectionable?”
Like Daniel, it was Cohen’s fascination, nay, worship of the neo-con agenda and their war-mongering – in particular the championing of our invasion and occupation of Iraq that did it for me. That makes him a neo-con stooge, it’s simple enough.
Perhaps you think that, rather than a stooge, he’s just a useful idiot?
In any case, you can see the depths of intellectual dishonesty to which he’s prepared to stoop, just from that hit-piece on Corbyn. As it happens, I have a book by Cohen too. Again, he can criticise from within the frame of reference allowed (even approved of) by The Establishment. He’s just very careful to be most definitely on-side when required.
Not surprised that his 2012 book was dedicated to Hitchens – he was every bit as bad, and sullied a reasonably good record with his own chicken-hawk warmongering.
I thought he was on holiday in Sri Lanka!
Blair warns Labour faces ‘annihilation’ as Corbynmania sees 400,0000 new members flood leadership race to install hard-left MP
Tonight, Tony Blair warned that the party was in the worst danger in its 100 year history. He added: ‘The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below.’
19:04, 12 August 2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3194817/Labour-facing-growing-calls-abandon-leadership-contest-2-000-malign-infiltrators-caught-trying-hijack-election.html
Oh. I see. He’s writing in the Guardian.
So the Mail and the Guardian are in it (the attack on Corbyn) together.
Fred
12 Aug, 2015 – 3:12 pm
“Therefore they are MPs who have accepted honours.”
…………………………………………………………..
Members of the Lords are not MPs Fred.
I’m beginning to think you really are a stupid person.
The next time you post something logical and apparently well researched I will have to assume plagiarism or help from an intelligent friend.
Mary : “Glenn I said to Lysias that I knew little about Sanders. The article was put up for info. No need to kick me so hard in the shins.”
My irritation was more at that Counterpunch article, Mary. Sanders is a good fellow.
The way US politics works is far more devious in many respects to that of our own. When it’s claimed that “This politician voted for X and Y!” it’s very rare that X and Y came up for a straight vote on their own merits. Usually, it’s X or Y that has been tacked onto some much larger bill, often for something which cannot be voted down – such as an extension to the national debt, or a health care proposal, or an extension to unemployment aid, or aid to some country.
Conversely, if a bill is voted down because of X and Y’s inclusion, then other items A, B and C which might have been useful are brought up, as in “This politician voted against A, B and C!” in order to make them look bad. It is virtually never straightforward.
Getting together a hit-piece when it spans a long political career is not difficult – it’s impossible to be completely “clean” because of such manipulations in the creation of bills.
My only suggestion is that you look at a candidate’s record a little more fully before dredging out a hit-piece on them. Listen to what they say:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrNdiW6a83k
I’ve been listening to Sanders for many years, and been subscribed to his newsletters for around 6 years which details his positions and why he’s voted this way or that. Seeing a nasty little hit-piece being presented as a summary of the man was rather unpleasant, replete with snide dismissals such as, “So he’d marched with black activists? So did my parents.”
He has been championing black movements since his time in school.
Anyway, Sanders there and Corbyn here would be a turnaround in global politics that might yet give us a shred of hope. I just hope they don’t do a Paul Wellstone on him first.
Glenn
Thanks for that.
I deduce you’ve the same beef as Daniel – ie, Cohen was good until he supported the Iraq war, whereupon he was good no longer.
As I mentioned, his 2012 book to which I referred contains more than one paragraph which could have come straight from the pen of Craig.
I take it you don’t consider Craig to be a neo-Con stooge. No? Well that shows you the stupidity of dismissing the entirety of the man’s views on the sole basis of what he thinks about the Iraq war.