Because Islam has held the monopoly on suicide bombers for far too long...

So recently two bombs were planted in Bombay auditoriums Thane and Vashi. One was diffused by police and the other went off and injured 7 people. Well there may have been universal condemnation in Indian media but it was not all quite for the right reasons.

“When we heard that Hindus have been making bombs, we were happy. But we felt ashamed when we read that the blast injured were Hindus,” says the editorial for the Bombay paper Saamna, a mouthpiece for the Hindu Nationalist Shiv Sena party. In fact the piece was titled: titled "The dud bombs of Hindus! Why embarrass us?". Yes those shoddy bomb-makers put upon all Hindus a grave shame, the shame of not being good enough to even put together a decent bomb, let alone have the guts to go and blow their guts all over the place with it like their Muslim brothers.








That's right folks, Hindus need suicide bombing squads to compete these days!

"Islamic terrorism is on the rise in India and in order to counter Islamic terrorism, we should match it with Hindu terrorism," the unsigned editorial said in Marathi. "Just like Islamic extremism, to safeguard the country and Hindus we must create Hindu suicide squads if Hindu society is to be saved."

One has to wonder, this is a Hindu nationalist party... and isn't Hinduism meant to be a peaceful reilgion? I mean there may have been a lot of bloodshed in the past but does this make sense? I mean how far back into samsara do you think one gets thrown? They probably get reincarnated as cockroaches. And what happened to the great Hindu tradition of ahimsa, or peaceful resistance? I think Gandhi has turned in his grave so many times by now that he's burrowed a hole to the centre of the earth.

Let's look at the Goverment's reactions? The Congress Party, aka. staunch defender of secularism says "The Congress strongly condemns the remarks said to have been made by Mr Bal Thackeray with regard to the formation of suicide squads. This is a clear call not only to lawlessness and violence but will be also the death knell for peaceful democracy," its spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters in New Delhi. I agree, India is a secular democracy, not a Hindu nation.

And the BJP? Aka. the moderate Hindu nationalist party that used to hold Government in India and is still a major contender? Criticising the comments, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday advised its ally to respect the law. “People should not take law into their hands. It is the duty of the government to counter terror,” BJP Vice President Venkaiah Naidu said. Fairly weak response designed to not lose any Shiv Sena supporters. Nice.

So seeing as the monopoly may be broken are we going to see Mormon terrorism now? Jehova's Witness extremism? Scientological suicide attacks? I'd like to see Tom Cruise blow himself up on Oprah's couch, that'd be something. Or maybe he'd do it Last Samurai style and go nuts with a big sword? OK I know I shouldnt be making light of this but seriously this is ridiculous. Has Inda not seen enough bloodshed during partition? What about Bombay? The riots? When will people learn?

HT Times coverage here and here for the Government reaction. The Age coverage here (yes it made the Aussie papers).

Dubai ticking time bomb

Thanks to my man Tom, formerly of Zemalek-Cairo fame, soon to be of Abu Dhabi fame, for providing these links and prompting this blogpost.

A very interesting viewpoint aka. leftist/socialist take on the phenomenon that is Dubai.

While the Dubai piece is certainly far from unbiased, and it does lampoon Sheikh Maktoum's gigantic ambitions fairly cleverly, it does also bring up some very interesting points about Dubai's history, srategy, laws and class society.

Historically, the article talks a great deal about Dubai's very humble beginnings, and how, interestingly, it has used many underworld links to ensure the security that it currently enjoys.

Dubai now enjoys high marks from Washington as a partner in the War on Terror and, in particular, as a base for spying on Iran; [26] but it is probable that al-Maktoum, like the other Emirati rulers, still keeps a channel open to radical Islamists. If al-Qaeda so desired, for example, it could presumably turn the Burj Al-Arab and Dubai’s other soaring landmarks into so many towering infernos. Yet so far Dubai is one of the few cities in the region to have entirely avoided car-bombings and attacks on Western tourists: eloquent testament, one might suppose, to the city-state’s continuing role as a money laundry and upscale hideout, like Tangiers in the 1940s or Macao in the 1960s. Dubai’s burgeoning black economy is its insurance policy against the car-bombers and airplane hijackers.

The article also points out how, rather obviously, how much the Gulf economies are reliant on positive fluctuations in the oil price, and how these fluctuations come about:

Every time insurgents blow up a pipeline in the Niger Delta, a martyr drives his truck bomb into a Riyadh housing complex, or Washington and Tel Aviv rattle their sabres at Tehran, the price of oil (and thus Dubai’s ultimate income) increases by some increment of anxiety in the all-important futures market. The Gulf economies, in other words, are now capitalized not just on oil production, but also on the fear of its disruption.

The article also makes a very interesting point of the current guest worker situation, that is of course applicable to all the other Gulf states (though not quite so much as Dubai with its ridiculously tiny single-digit local population).

The unruly voice of labour echoes louder in the deserts of the uae than it might elsewhere. At the end of the day, Dubai is capitalized just as much on cheap labour as it is on expensive oil, and the Maktoums, like their cousins in the other emirates, are exquisitely aware that they reign over a kingdom built on the backs of a South Asian workforce.


The question on everyone's lips of course, is how sustainable this strategy is exactly. Perhaps because the article was published in October of 2006, it fails to mention the impact that the falling value of the US Dollar is currently having on worker morale in the Gulf. If we look simply at the state of the US economy, and the concurrently nosediving interest rates (down 0.75 percentage points last month, and another 0.5 a week later), the picture for the US currency sure looks bleak indeed. Which also means that the outlook for those of us earning Bahraini Dinar, Saudi Rial, Emirati Dirham, or any of the other Gulf currencies pegged to the USD is similarly not good. Particularly for those that are earning these wages in ridiculously tiny amounts, all on the premise of being able to send some home to South/South-East Asia. Now when these currencies begin to depreciate at a great rate to the Indian Rupee and other South/South-East Asian currencies, the trouble begins. Working conditions have not improved, wages have not appreciated in nominal terms and are depreciating now when stacked up in real terms against the wages they are meant to supplicate in the workers' home countries. Combine this with the already simmering discontent of being treated like slaves with no rights to mobilisation, let alone collective bargaining, and you really have a problem. It does indeed seem that, at least in this respect, the Gulf is a ticking time bomb. Food for thought, and we thought sectarian unrest or a strike against Iran were the problems, this seems to be the least of our worries...

Kevin07 is a reality - The Australian Federal Election

This was only the second election that I have been eligible to vote in, and sadly the first election I have been overseas during the course of. As there was no ballot box in Bahrain and sending a postal vote appeared to be too complicated, my vote was not cast. However, waking up today and viewing the headlines on The Age was exhilirating.

"Rudd Romps to Victory: Howard humiliated as Liberals are mauled"
"Historic win for Labor"
"Howard likely to lose in Bennelong"
"A Rumble, then a Ruddslide"
"Payback time as battlers take their revenge"
"Team Julia delivers a win for history"

Yes indeed, even though voting is not yet complete, it does appear that the Australian Labor Party is going to form government, with a 25 seat majority, with Mr. Kevin Rudd at its helm as Prime Minister.

I have to say bravo to the ALP campaign team for running a very tight and clever campaign, that managed to sidestep all of the Liberals' usual fear-mongering and dirty tricks, and bravo to the voters of Australia for making the right decision. Although I am not proud to say that I live in an electoral area that, due to the economic prosperity of its residents, is remaining a safe Liberal seat, I am still proud to be part of a country where I no longer have to be embarassed of our leader. Now I am just waiting to see what Mr. Rudd is going to do with the confidence I, and many fellow Australians, have in him, let's hope we are not disappointed.

Mr. Rudd campaigned largely on an agenda of reform in key areas of health, education, environment and industrial relations. He intends to rollback the very unpopular Work Choices policies of the previous Government (which contributed to its downfall), push for an immediate ratification of the Kyoto agreement (finally!) and negotiate a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq (finally an end to our part in the occupation). Good signs indeed.

The undoings of Mr. Howard were very clear and simple. The massive majority that was formed in the wake of the 2004 election gave the Government unprecendent power, power that eventually went to its head. The papers called it a "victory of humility over hubris" and I couldn't agree more. One thing that Aussies hate is arrogance and hubris. Work Choices was never popular with the people, no matter how much the Government sold it, and the people were not fooled. Similarly, Howard's close ties to Mr. George W. Bush were not appreciated by the electorate, nor was his ridiculous promise to keep interest rates low, something entirely out of his control. Six interest rate rises later, he can kiss office goodbye.

Not only that, but Mr. Howard is actually going to lose his seat in Bennelong, a seat which he has won in every single election since being elected to it as a Member of Parliament in 1974. He is losing to a political rookie and former news anchor, Maxine McKew. Such is the dissatisfaction around the country with him, his policies and his personality. This only the second time in history that the PM has lost his seat during an election, the last time being in 1929, also over an unpopular right-wing industrial relations agenda.

So now that Mr. Howard has been duly humiliated for having the arrogance to push for such a ridiculous agenda, for having the arrogance not to step down and hand over to Costello when it was clear to everyone, even his own party, that he was getting too old and too arrogant, for having the arrogance to try to hoodwink the Australian people so many times, with his promises on interest rates, with his lies about the Tampa incident, with his lies about WMDs in Iraq and with his generally abrasive, evasive and grating demeanor, he is getting his just desserts. Instead of going out a winner, he is well and truly going out a loser.

And as much as I dislike Costello and believe his economic rationalist policies may even be worse for Australia, I can't help but feel sorry for the man who must have believed at one time that he would easily become Prime Minister. Now Costello has to fight for the leadership of an unpopular party, and battle a worthy opponent in Malcom Turnbull, who was the only Liberal to buck the swinging trend and hold his seat strongly. Good Luck, Pete!

Myself personally, I am just happy that I no longer have to look at Howard on television any more and cringe at how dull, ugly, uninspiring, arrogant and evasive he is. God Bless Australia.