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.
All,
Click this link to sign the petition “Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested for war crimes when he arrives in London”
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105446
“Also, the ‘something is rotten in’ line rather suggests a nod to the ‘bad apple’ view”
No, it alludes to “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, from Hamlet.
“At the risk of repeating myself, I believe that a Labour Party campaigning on a Corbynite prospectus will not win the next election.”
Yes, habby.
But you’ve given no reason for this belief other than that it all happened before, 30 odd years ago.
In radically different conditions.
You’re simply a cargo-culter.
Perfect civil service material.
“I’m hearing despondency and alienation, and everywhere people look they see the economic game rigged against them and in favour of a relatively small elite.”
I’m sorry but real people just don’t talk like that – you were either listening to yourself or just moving in your usual small circle.
Anyone who calls up the Daily Mail home page and does a word search on “queen” can easily find the article in question. As I am not interested in reading the article, I did not click on the link.
Herbie
And your belief that a Corbynite Labour Party will be electable when a Michael Foot-led Labour Party failed dismally in 1983 is the woolly statement that “things have changed”.
I suspect you’ll find that the good common sense of the UK electrorate hasn’t changed as much as you obviously wish.
I think that’s clear enough, so over to you for a second last word, Herbie.
Whether a Corbynite Labour Party would be electable or not, it would at least present voters with a meaningful choice, and bring up issues that the plutocrats would prefer to see ignored.
Yes, I can see why you would not be interested in reading anything about terrrrrism.
BTW, has your desire to peddle rumours and innuendo about the late PM Sir Edward Heath anything to do with IRA terrrrism and Sunningdale?
“Whether a Corbynite Labour Party would be electable or not, it would at least present voters with a meaningful choice”
________________________
Which is precisely what I and some others have been saying for thee last few weeks.
Pay attention!
Someone who seems most annoyed when he thinks his own group is being stereotyped seems quite willing to do some stereotyping of his own.
Mary, the reader’s comments on the Sky News piece are the usual swivel-eyed loon stuff; but interestingly, when I read the Mail piece earlier today a large number of reader’s comments saw it for the vile propaganda it is. I’ll repeat the link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3190706/Jihadis-VJ-plot-bomb-Queen-Police-MI5-race-against-time-foil-Boston-style-IED-spectacular-Saturday.html
I’ve noticed a similar thing with reader’s comments on Daily Mail Corbyn character assassination pieces.
Perhaps people in England and Wales are having a ‘Scottish moment’; ie, they are waking up to the fact that just about everything the media tell them is complete and utter bullshit.
And perhaps they are also waking up to the fact that reader’s comment threads are infested with an army of trolls, whose sole purpose is to subvert democracy and keep the rich and powerful in the manner to which they are accustomed.
“Anyone who calls up the Daily Mail home page and does a word search on “queen” can easily find the article in question.”
_________________________
As I have no interest in reading the Daily Mail there is no reason for me to “call up” its webpage.
I leave that rather sordid task to those who obviously derive pleasure and benefit from so doing. 🙂
If the Daily Mail article isn’t worth reading, what is the point of bringing it up?
Myself, I suspect this pretended disinterest in reading the article is a cover for not being able to access it, for some reason (job, country, whatever).
Aidworker1
I have noticed, in addition to your rather self-congratulatory choice of moniker, that you appear on this blog to comment almost entirely on Israel and matters pertaining to the Palestinians. Could you explain what sort of aid work you do and how you define it? It’s just that “aid” as far as you seem to be concerned in this world of misery and suffering, seems to be exclusively the preserve of victims of the Jews, as you see them. Am I not right?
Habba said: “BTW, has your desire to peddle rumours and innuendo about the late PM Sir Edward Heath anything to do with IRA terrrrism and Sunningdale?”
Scotland Yard has been investigating allegations against Ted Heath for the last ten months. The initial allegations led the police to set up Operation Midland, which as well as an investigation into high level paedophilia is also looking at the murder of at least three young boys:
http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5629/sir-edward-heath-met-also-investigates-claims-of-child-sex-abuse
And as I think I’ve already said on this blog, the recent Ben Fellows trial brought out the fact that Kenneth Clarke (who’s still a sitting MP) is under investigation for other child sex abuse allegations.
Time is running short for the totally corrupt and rancid British Establishment, who are the laughing stock of the world.
“If the Daily Mail article isn’t worth reading, what is the point of bringing it up?”
_____________________
Two reasons really:
1/. there appear to be many admirers of the Daily Mail on here (yourself included) and I would not wish them to have missed the latest offering from that august journal of record
and
2/. I was surprised to see that the usual suspects who so frequently refer to that august journal remained silent about its article on an (alleged, at this stage) Muslim terrrrrr plot.
I notice that someone continues to add the “Sir” to “Sir Edward Heath”. I wonder if he does the same for Savile.
RobG
“Scotland Yard has been investigating allegations against Ted Heath for the last ten months.”
____________________
How is this relevant to the question of whether a certain poster’s desire to peddle rumours and innuendo about the late PM Sir Edward Heath has something to do with IRA terrrrism and Sunningdale?
I recall that the poster in question got very upset some time ago when there was some reference to certain Irish-Americans having a rather let’s say ambiguous position on IRA terrrrrism. I can’t help wondering if there’s not a common thread there.
“But I’ll tell you the country I live in if you tell me your full name and address, can’t say fairer than that can I”
A vineyard somewhere in Poitou-Charentes, from which the revolution will be instigated, and the guilty tried and shot.
A most fitting venue. The French like to promote Poitou-Charentes as the epicentre of the Resistance. But in reality it was central to the collaboration effort.
Daniel,
I think we disagree on the second part. It is unfortunate that Israel’s primary spokespeople misuse the crime of the Jewish holocaust, and carry that narrative right into the conflict with Palestine. Thus the broad nature of Jewish identity – both in cultural and religious terms – is deliberately mixed with nationalism, a fear agenda and a hawkish foreign policy. I think this is about imperialism, rather than any sense of Jewish malice.
It is worth considering that those of us seeking peace are frequently willing to accuse the Israeli government of lying, so if the Israeli power elite imply that there is some religious duty to state violence, or the settlers claim the Jewish texts give them the right to Palestinian land, we should call these statements out too. The Left should not be suddenly willing to take the Jewishness of statements as the gospel truth just because they conveniently feed into a “evil Jew” caricature. Not only does this oppose the Left’s anti-racism elsewhere, but it props up state propaganda that Israel is needed now more than ever, and is home to a cruelly banished people (including its elite, presumably).
Oh, and in the interests of balance, RE my post at 9.45pm, Yvette Cooper has had a video on YouTube since the start of the year, promoting her as leader of the Labour Party…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBmMIH5PAWc
… which seems to suggest that she didn’t think that Labour had a hope in hell of winning the election.
As with the videos from the other two muppets, Cooper’s is just bland soundbites which mean nothing, set in an ‘advert’: a corporate version of politics. There’s nothing firm about Cooper’s policies whatsoever.
If Corbyn loses the leadership race it will be the death of the Labour Party, and probably the last nail in the coffin of British democracy. The lights will go out and the Habbas of this world will take complete control.
I wonder if a certain poster would not be on safer ground if he stuck to giving us hitherto unknown information about Sir Edward Heath like, for example, “Edward Heath was Prime Minister from 2970 to 1974 and remained leader of the Conservative party until 1975”. 🙂
“1970 to 1974”
We should remember as well there are a number of Jewish people and groups in all countries – including Israel – who are opposed to Israeli/US imperialism.
Ah, I’m glad to catch you here Habbabkuk. Since you are frequently chasing people for a discussion, and are admonishing of people who do not participate, I addressed an item to you earlier. I am, believe it or not, earnestly seeking your views. You’ve since reiterated the “electability of the Left” view, which I think does not take into account how choice works within the democratic framework we have now.
Johnstone
9 Aug, 2015 – 1:32 pm
Thanks for that… wise words here from a man that Took real action on Removing Nukes. –
“Can we really imagine a world without nuclear weapons if a single country amasses so many conventional weapons that its military budget nearly tops that of all other countries combined,” Gorbachev asked – leaving no doubt which country he meant!
America “would (still) enjoy total military supremacy if nuclear weapons were abolished,” he added.
They’re “unacceptable (and) inhumane” – able to “wipe out the entirety of civilization” in short order. “Weapons like this have never existed before in history, and they cannot be allowed to exist” – if humanity expects to have any chance to survive.
Demilitarization is vital, Gorbachev stresses – including “reduc(ed) military budgets, a moratorium on the development of the new types of weapons and a prohibition on militarizing space.”
Without all these actions, demilitarization will be meaningless, he explained. “The world would then become less safe, more unstable and unpredictable. Everyone will lose, including those now seeking to dominate the world.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/gorbachev-fears-nuclear-war-as-long-as-these-weapons-exist-sooner-or-later-they-will-be-used/5467933
Mary @ 1 56 Pm.. cheers for those Links .
A nerve has been well and truly struck, it would appear. Funny someone would be so very concerned about Heath’s reputation, so many years after the events in question.
Almost as strange as someone so very concerned about peddling scurrilous accusations about Sir Edward so many years after he was active in politics.
Do IRA terrrrism and Sunningdale come into this apparent animus against Sir Edward by any chance?
Craig, I have to agree about Georgian wines. I seriously thought about trying to import them at one point. I know there is a market for them. Unfortunately to start a business I think you need some experience.
As to the politics of Georgia, go to the villages. As with Romania everybody used to have jobs. As to those who still support Stalin they probably do so because of his Georgian nationality, born not a long way from Tblisi, in Gori. On my cycle ride in 2000 I was tempted to take a detour into Gori which was only a few kilometres from the main drag, but my back wheel, after going over the Caucas mountains was holding together on a prayer, spokes bent round other spokes with a pair of pliers – local knowledge. It was only when I got to the velodrome in Tblisi that I could get the wheel fixed.
Anyway today I finished my cycle-ride on behalf of Palestinian children. Some of the hundred participants did the whole route from Edinburgh to London. Lovely people. Apart from the inner-tube changes today (x3) it was most enjoyable. I think the front tyre had melted in the heat of yesterday, so easy to pick up a flat when some of the route follows national cycle paths, not good for a racing bike. Anyway the legs still have it. In a masochistic kind of way it was a very pleasurable experience 🙂
What was most impressive was the way the whole event had been organised. So many names I could mention, Dermott, Richard, Mary (The Truck Driver), Linette young Conor, who gave a fine extempore and moving speech at last night’s social gathering, Naeem who together with Khalil organised the West Midlands’ input, and many more I have missed.
But most of all Dr Mona el-Farra, a Palestinian who has witnessed first-hand the heatbreak, wounding and psychological sufferings of children traumatised by the Iraeli bombing, who herself, due to Israeli prohibitions has difficulty travelling outside her own country. You would think that it should be Palestinians that decided who and who should not travel in and out of Palestine. You would think it was Palestinians who limited the zone in which Palestinians could fish. There is an apartheid state of Israel which needs to be opposed as much as the apartheid state of South Africa. It steals land, displaces families, and bombs innocents. It is a disgrace.
Get on board the aid ship. You don’t need to travel to Israel or Palestine. You can do it from your chair. I know some of you already have. Thanks so much.
http://www.redspokes.co.uk/thebigride/booking/donate.php