The story read at this link here
http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/07/0335227/UK-National-ID-Card-Cloned-In-12-Minutes?art_pos=4
seems to paint a very bleak picture about our use of technology by our governments today. The UK is guilty of incorrectly implementing a technology, which when tested by a TRUE hacker, was cloned in under 12 minutes.
The catch is the government owes us no explanation per se, they do as they will and change things as they please. My request to Obama, is put more faith in the people especially those all using advanced technology (as you are Mr.Blackberry man)...to at least push the testing beyond closed government quarters. The days of government contracts should come under scrutiny, if not for security of the people's identity alone, then at least for the security of the nation.
We all saw the movie Die Hard or Live Free....where the terrorist was an insider, which tried to point out the government's weaknesses. Yes the movie was about Bruce Willis kicking duff....but remember the underlying message, the government is not all knowing. They do make mistakes, and when it comes to identities that can be stolen, we don't want to have mistakes. Lost money on a credit acrd is one thing, but having your life cloned and used to help evil in whatever form, and have that reputation tarnished, is not something to be taken lightly.
Please Obama, before doing as our over anxious UK counter parts did, at least get some of the defcon blackhat team members review and help on testing the new RFID chips, should you even ever consider using them as proof of identity!
PS- One card to rule them all, incorporate the passport, with a special bonus card that doubles as your medicare, drivers, social security, would be nice...then only one office would need to create them, and in such would enforce the technology being available to no do gooders!
The US/Britain 200 Years war against Islamic pirates - terrorists
For young Somalis, piracy offers power, prosperity The Associated Press There are several known pirate groups in Somalia. One is based in the southern port town of Kismayo, which is controlled by Islamic insurgents. … http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iR9XICoYi0CQt77GJUw5lNAPpG_AD97EGS200
Hot Air » Blog Archive » Somali pirates seize American ship, crew … by Ed Morrissey Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates …one cannot get around what Jefferson heard when he went with John Adams to wait upon Tripoli’s ambassador to London in March 1785. When they inquired by what right the Barbary states preyed upon American shipping … So here was an early instance of the “heads I win, tails you lose” dilemma, in which the United States is faced with corrupt regimes, on the one hand, and Islamic militants, on the other—or indeed a collusion between them. … http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/08/somali-pirates-seize-american-ship-crew/
A look back at history
Britain’s 200-year jihad (and US facing them)
Britain’s 200-year jihad There are many similarities between the stateless jihad of the 1700’s and ….. The pirate ships set sail for Algeria later that day, with the captives on … http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/008320.php
America’s Earliest Terrorists
Lessons from America’s first war against Islamic terror.
December 16, 2005, 9:55 a.m. By Joshua E. London At the dawn of a new century, a newly elected United States president was forced to confront a grave threat to the nation — an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim terrorists. Worse still, these Islamic partisans operated under the protection and sponsorship of rogue Arab states ruled by ruthless and cunning dictators. Sluggish in recognizing the full nature of the threat, America entered the war well after the enemy’s call to arms. Poorly planned and feebly executed, the American effort proceeded badly and at great expense — resulting in a hastily negotiated peace and an equally hasty declaration of victory. As timely and familiar as these events may seem, they occurred more than two centuries ago. The president was Thomas Jefferson, and the terrorists were the Barbary pirates. Unfortunately, many of the easy lessons to be plucked from this experience have yet to be fully learned. The Barbary states, modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, are collectively known to the Arab world as the Maghrib (”Land of Sunset”), denoting Islam’s territorial holdings west of Egypt. With the advance of Mohammed’s armies into the Christian Levant in the seventh century, the Mediterranean was slowly transformed into the backwater frontier of the battles between crescent and cross. Battles raged on both land and sea, and religious piracy flourished. The Maghrib served as a staging ground for Muslim piracy throughout the Mediterranean, and even parts of the Atlantic. America’s struggle with the terror of Muslim piracy from the Barbary states began soon after the 13 colonies declared their independence from Britain in 1776, and continued for roughly four decades, finally ending in 1815. Although there is much in the history of America’s wars with the Barbary pirates that is of direct relevance to the current “war on terror,” one aspect seems particularly instructive to informing our understanding of contemporary Islamic terrorists. Very simply put, the Barbary pirates were committed, militant Muslims who meant to do exactly what they said. Take, for example, the 1786 meeting in London of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the Tripolitan ambassador to Britain. As American ambassadors to France and Britain respectively, Jefferson and Adams met with Ambassador Adja to negotiate a peace treaty and protect the United States from the threat of Barbary piracy. These future United States presidents questioned the ambassador as to why his government was so hostile to the new American republic even though America had done nothing to provoke any such animosity. Ambassador Adja answered them, as they reported to the Continental Congress, “that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.” Sound familiar? The candor of that Tripolitan ambassador is admirable in its way, but it certainly foreshadows the equally forthright declarations of, say, the Shiite Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the 1980s and the Sunni Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, not to mention the many pronouncements of their various minions, admirers, and followers. Note that America’s Barbary experience took place well before colonialism entered the lands of Islam, before there were any oil interests dragging the U.S. into the fray, and long before the founding of the state of Israel. America became entangled in the Islamic world and was dragged into a war with the Barbary states simply because of the religious obligation within Islam to bring belief to those who do not share it. This is not something limited to “radical” or “fundamentalist” Muslims. Which is not to say that such obligations lead inevitably to physical conflict, at least not in principle. After all peaceful proselytizing among various religious groups continues apace throughout the world, but within the teachings of Islam, and the history of Muslims, this is a well-established militant thread. The Islamic basis for piracy in the Mediterranean was an old doctrine relating to the physical or armed jihad, or struggle. To Muslims in the heyday of Barbary piracy, there were, at least in principle, only two forces at play in the world: the Dar al-Islam, or House of Islam, and the Dar al-Harb, or House of War. The House of Islam meant Muslim governance and the unrivaled authority of the sharia, Islam’s complex system of holy law. The House of War was simply everything that fell outside of the House of Islam — that area of the globe not under Muslim authority, where the infidel ruled. For Muslims, these two houses were perpetually at war — at least until mankind should finally embrace Allah and his teachings as revealed through his prophet, Mohammed. The point of jihad is not to convert by force, but to remove the obstacles to the infidels’ conversion so that they shall either convert or become a dhimmi (a non-Muslim who accepts Islamic dominion) and pay the jizya, or poll tax. The goal is to bring all of the Dar al-Harb into the peace of the Dar al-Islam, and to eradicate unbelief. The Koran also promises rewards to those who fight in the jihad, plunder and glory in this world and the delights of paradise in the next. Although the piratical activities of Barbary genuinely degenerated over the centuries from pure considerations of the glory of jihad to less grandiose visions of booty and state revenues, it is important to remember that the religious foundations of the institution of piracy remained central. Even after it became commonplace for the pirate captains or their crew to be renegade Europeans, it was essential that these former Christians “turn Turk” and convert to Islam before they could be accorded the honor of engagement in al-jihad fil-bahr, the holy war at sea. In fact, the peoples of Barbary continued to consider the pirates as holy warriors even after the Barbary rulers began to allow non-religious commitments to command their strategic use of piracy. The changes that the religious institution of piracy underwent were natural, if pathological. Just as the concept of jihad is invoked by Muslim terrorists today to legitimize suicide bombings of noncombatants for political gain, so too al-jihad fil-bahr, the holy war at sea, served as the cornerstone of the Barbary states’ interaction with Christendom.
In times of conflict, America tends to focus on personalities over ideas or movements, trying to play the man, not the board — as if capturing or killing Osama bin Laden, for example, would instantly end the present conflict. But such thinking loses sight of the fact that ideas have consequences. If one believes that God commands something, this belief is not likely to dissipate just because the person who elucidated it has been silenced. Islam, as a faith, is as essential a feature of the terrorist threat today as it was of the Barbary piracy over two centuries ago. The Barbary pirates were not a “radical” or “fundamentalist” sect that had twisted religious doctrine for power and politics, or that came to recast aspects of their faith out of some form of insanity. They were simply a North African warrior caste involved in an armed jihad — a mainstream Muslim doctrine. This is how the Muslims understood Barbary piracy and armed jihad at the time, and, indeed, how the physical jihad has been understood since Mohammed revealed it as the prophecy of Allah. Obviously, and thankfully, not every Muslim is obligated, or even really inclined, to take up this jihad. Indeed, many Muslims are loath to personally embrace this physical struggle. But that does not mean they are all opposed to such a struggle any more than the choice of many Westerners not to join the police force or the armed services means they do not support those institutions. Whether “insurgents” are fighting in Iraq or “rebels” and “militants” are skirmishing in Chechnya or Hamas “activists” are detonating themselves in Israel, Westerners seem unwilling to bring attention to the most salient feature of all these groups: They claim to be acting in the name of Islam. It is very easy to chalk it all up to regional squabbles, economic depression, racism, or post-colonial nationalistic self-determinism. Such explanations undoubtedly enter into part of the equation — they are already part of the propaganda that clouds contemporary analysis. But as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams came to learn back in 1786, the situation becomes a lot clearer when you listen to the stated intentions and motivations of the terrorists and take them at face value. — Joshua E. London is the author of Victory in Tripoli: How America’s War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation (John Wiley & Sons, September 2005); for more about the book visit www.victoryintripoli.com. http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/london200512160955.asp
Jihad in the Days of Jefferson http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961230585&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
When the Founding Fathers Faced Islamists May 27, 2008 … birth of US Naval power and the campaign against the Barbary pirates: …. that United States did not start the war with the Jihadists. … http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/when-the-founding-fathers-faced-islamists/
Sally Rovers incident, at the height of North African Arab Muslim pirates’ crimes against Christians, mainly British
Britain’s 200-year jihad
On my travels for the past few days, I have been reading a book which tells the story of a quite astonishing part of British history of which I was previously unaware. In ‘White Gold’, Giles Milton records the appalling details — gleaned,it appears, from a wealth of historical documents including diaries and letters — of a seaborne Islamic jihad against Britain which lasted for no less than two centuries.
From the early seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, thousands of British men women and children were kidnapped by Arab corsairs and sold into slavery in Morocco where they were kept in conditions of unspeakable barbarism. The astounding thing is that these British victims were not merely seized at sea where they ran the gauntlet of such pirates in places such as the Straits of Gibraltar. They were actually abducted from Britain itself.
Corsairs from a place in Morocco called Sale — who became known in Britain as the ‘Sally Rovers’ — sailed up the Cornish coast in July 1625, for example, came ashore dressed in djellabas and wielding damascene scimitars, burst into the parish church at Mount’s Bay and dragged out 60 men women and children whom they shipped off to Morocco. Thousands more Britons were seized from their villages or their ships and dispatched to the hell-holes of the Moroccan slave pens, from where they were forced to work all hours in appalling conditions building the vast palace of the monstrous and psychopathic Sultan, Moulay Ismail, who tortured and butchered them at whim. Most of them perished, but the book records the survival of a tenacious Cornish boy Thomas Pellow, who survived 23 years of this ordeal and whose descendant, Lord Exmouth, finally ended the white slave trade when he destroyed Algiers in 1816.
The book makes clear that this assault upon the British people (and upon Europeans and Americans who were similarly seized) was a jihad. The Sally Rovers, writes Milton, were called ‘al-ghuzat’– the term once used for the soldiers who fought with the Prophet — and were hailed as religious warriors engaged in a holy war against the infidel Christians who were pressurised to convert to Islam under threat of hideous punishment. What is even more striking was the response of the British crown. For almost two centuries, it made only the most ineffectual attempts to rescue its enslaved subjects. Those who had succumbed to the torture and inhumanity of the Sultan and converted to Islam were deemed to be no longer British and therefore outside the scope of any rescue. The pleas of Pellow’s parents were simply brushed aside. Popular outrage forced successive Kings to dispatch a series of feeble emissaries to try to get the Sultan to end this vile traffic and release the slaves, all to no avail.
But this went on for virtually two centuries. For almost 200 years the British state either sat on its hands or wrung them impotently while the Islamic jihad seized, enslaved and butchered its people. And then it appears, this staggering onslaught was all but airbrushed out of our history.
Food for disquieting thought. http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/001423.html
‘Pirates of Penzance’ redo? James Zumwalt Thursday, October 2, 2008 Soon after winning independence from England, the United States faced another war. Muslim pirates operating off North Africa’s Barbary Coast were seizing U.S., as well as European, ships sailing in international waters, holding them for tribute payment or plunder. In 1786, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, meeting in London with Tripoli’s Muslim ambassador to Britain, inquired as to the reason for such Arab hostility. Acknowledging their attacks were unprovoked, the Tripoli ambassador explained it was their right and duty under the Koran as faithful Muslim followers to plunder and enslave the unfaithful - with those Muslims dying in the process going to paradise. To stop the attacks, the United States initially agreed to pay the Barbary pirates tribute, equal to about 20 percent of government revenues. Only later did an indignant United States launch two wars against them, ending in victory in 1815 and no further payments. European nations, acting individually and collectively, suppressed pirate activity as well, with the French conquest of Algiers in 1830 providing the last nail in the Barbary Pirates’ coffin. Today, Muslim pirates again sail the seas off Africa’s coast. Mostly Somalis, these pirates have already attacked more than 60 ships this year in the vicinity of the Gulf of Aden - almost 5 times more than occurred all last year. Pirates gain confidence as owners prove willing to pay ransoms for the safe return of ships and crews, much like the United States first did with the Barbary Pirates. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/02/pirates-of-penzance-redo/
The Obama adminstration upholds the threat to Britain to withhold from them security information about potential terrorist threats, if they release evidence in their possession that strongly supports the assertion that Binyam Mohamed was seriously tortured and held captive for years - by the United States government. He is facing the death penalty and the only evidence againt him is his own confession, obtained by torture. The Obama administration has "thanked the UK government for its continued commitment to protect sensitive national security information"...and that the US will "preserve the long-standing intelligence sharing relationship".
President Obama, we realize that you are busy dealing with the current financial crises. But, we also know you are fully aware that, as Washington Independent's Daphne Evitar put it:
the Obama administration is continuing the Bush administration’s policy of concealing evidence that the U.S. sponsored torture and other abuse
We find this policy to highly disturbing and unacceptble given expectations you yourself set during your campaign. And, we demand an immediate change, including a revesal of the following Obama santioned practices.
Read more here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/19/exceptionalism/index.html
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/humane-altern-1.html
Chicago reader
So here it is. The day so many have waited for, for so long. Today is the dawning of a new political, social & cultural era, not just in the United States but across the world.I've blogged before about how excited & hopeful I am about an Obama Presidency, but I want to explain what it means to me on very personal level. Barack Obama is the only politician I have ever heard talking about disability & disabled people in such a positive way. This positivity in itself is not only refreshing but also very necessary. Politicians in the UK rarely talk about the subject & when they do it's usually in very negative or unhelpful terms regarding welfare & state benefits. This is not the way to inspire young disabled people to achieve their goals.To many African Americans & also ethnic minorities around the world he is a symbol of the strides forward in recent decades & of positive change still to come. He's also given me hope as a young disabled woman.Barack Obama has proved that anyone from any background can achieve great things. I now hope that one day I see someone like me, posing for the press outidside the famous door of 10 Downing Street & giving their first speech as Prime Minister of Great Britain. This may seem unlikely but then so did the prospect of an African American President before Obama started his campaign.Change is possible.Yes. We. Can.
Iran says has proof U.S., UK back police killer group
from Reuters - Saturday, Dec 13, 8:17 am ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has documents to prove the United States and Britain, the Islamic Republic's two Western arch foes, back a group that killed 16 abducted Iranian police officers, state radio reported on Saturday.
Shi'ite-dominated Iran said this month the Sunni group Jundollah (God's Soldiers) had killed 16 police hostages who were abducted from a checkpoint in the southeastern Sistan- Baluchestan province in June.
Tehran, which often accuses Britain and the United States of trying to destabilize the Islamic Republic, has said Jundollah's head, Abdolmalek Rigi, is part of the Sunni Islamist al Qaeda network.
"There are documents that show that Britain and America are supporting Rigi's terrorist group with arms and information," the radio quoted Ebrahim Raisi, first deputy to Iran's judiciary chief, as saying......
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081213/ts_nm/us_iran_jundollah
(Press Release)
Dear Friends,
A new website has been created dedicated to America's President-Elect, Barack Obama, with a big difference. It follows Obama's fortunes and frailties in his election campaign through the eyes of a British writer, Elaine Sihera (Ms Cyprah), from a uniquely Black British perspective. Well known in minority communities in the UK, and the most quoted British woman on the Internet, Elaine had a personal crisis which coincided with the duration of Obama's campaign and has led to this amazing website (www.barackobama-andme.com) which carries the title: My Journey with Barack Obama.
The unique informative website begins the narrative from the time the Senator launched his campaign in Illinois, through to the primaries and his nomination and election. A pioneering achiever in her own right who shares Obama's motivational ideals, and a champion for 'ageing disgracefully', Elaine was so empowered by the campaign, she even went to the Illinois Obama HQ in Chicago during election week to help on the phones getting the vote out and was also in Grant Park as a guest on election night shouting 'Yes We Can!' with everyone else. An experience she describes as 'more than magical'.
The striking, colourful website, which is packed with eye catching photographs, inspirational quotes, presidential quotes, widgets for up-to-date news, useful links, Barack's books, fun games and the articles themselves, each one matching the progress of the campaign, opens with the following introduction:
by John Pilger @ antiwar.com
I went to the Houses of Parliament on 22 October to join a disconsolate group of shivering people who had arrived from a faraway tropical place and were being prevented from entering the Public Gallery to hear their fate. This was not headline news; the BBC reporter seemed almost embarrassed. Crimes of such magnitude are not news when they are ours, and neither is injustice or corruption at the apex of British power.
Lizette Talatte was there, her tiny frail self swallowed by the cavernous stone gray of Westminster Hall. I first saw her in a Colonial Office film from the 1950s which described her homeland, the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, as a paradise long settled by people "born and brought up in conditions most tranquil and benign." Lizette was then 14 years old. She remembers the producer saying to her and her friends, "Keep smiling, girls!." When we met in Mauritius, four years ago, she said: "We didn't need to be told to smile. I was a happy child, because my roots were deep in Diego Garcia. My great-grandmother was born there, and I made six children there. Maybe only the English can make a film that showed we were an established community, then deny their own evidence and invent the lie that we were transient workers."
During the 1960s and 1970s British governments, Labour and Tory, tricked and expelled the entire population of the Chagos Archipelago, more than 2,000 British citizens, so that Diego Garcia could be given to the United States as the site for a military base.........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.antiwar.com/pilger/?articleid=13826
November 27-28, 2008 -- Mumbai attacks part of "Blowback" for CIA double cross
by Wayne Madsen @ waynemadsenreport.com
The violence that is sweeping Mumbai's tourist and business areas is the work of rival Hindu nationalist terrorists and Muslim gangs, according to WMR's Asian intelligence sources. Scores have been killed and hundreds injured in the violence sweeping India's financial capital. Although the "Indian Mujaheddin" and "Al Qaeda in India" are the corporate media's suspects in the violence, the attacks have more to do with score settling and a warning by a CIA asset and Muslim-Hindu gang violence.
The violence began with some crude "dud" bombs being planted around the city. However, these are seen as "false flag" attacks carried out by HIndu nationalist terrorists who support the Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which hopes to beat the ruling Congress Party in forthcoming elections. The Hindu nationalists often wave the "Muslim terrorist" shirt to win popular support.
SOURCE - http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
by Richard Norton-Taylor @ The Guardian/UK
One of Britain's most authoritative judicial figures last night delivered a blistering attack on the invasion of Iraq, describing it as a serious violation of international law, and accusing Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante".
Contradicting head-on Lord Goldsmith's advice that the invasion was lawful, Bingham stated: "It was not plain that Iraq had failed to comply in a manner justifying resort to force and there were no strong factual grounds or hard evidence to show that it had." Adding his weight to the body of international legal opinion opposed to the invasion, Bingham said that to argue, as the British government had done, that Britain and the US could unilaterally decide that Iraq had broken UN resolutions "passes belief".........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/18/iraq-us-foreign-policy
A British soldier patrols the northern suburbs of the southern Iraqi city of Basra. One of Britain's most authoritative judicial figures last night delivered a blistering attack on the invasion of Iraq, describing it as a serious violation of international law, and accusing Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante". (Photograph: Dave Clark/AFP/Getty images)Lord Bingham, in his first major speech since retiring as the senior law lord, rejected the then attorney general's defence of the 2003 invasion as fundamentally flawed.
This power point presentation about Barcak Obama has been created as a learning resource. Please feel free to use or distribute for educational purposes. So when our children see it, they believe that they can do it. Let them believe they can fly, believe that if they aim for it, they can touch the sky. Click the link blow or copy and paste it into your browser to download presentation.http://www.c-a-n-i.com/BARACK%20OBAMA%20-%20YES%20WE%20CAN%20(Open%20as%20Read%20Only).pptLearn and enjoy.
Ken Barnes
By Barak Ravid
Relations between Israel and Britain remained strained on Thursday over Downing Street's intention to label products manufactured in West Bank settlements, a week before the expected arrival of British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband, to the Middle East. Miliband, who will visit Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Lebanon next week, is expected to talk to Israeli officials over the settlements in the West Bank and his country's proposed plan to label products manufactured in them. "This initiative is a serious and substantial problem in relations between the two countries, and is generating a sense of crisis," a senior diplomat in Jerusalem said.......
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037263.html
By OMAR BARGHOUTI
A spate of recent news reports on international companies moving out of the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) to locations inside pre-1967 Israeli borders gives the impression that boycotting products originating in illegal Israeli colonies is on its way to becoming mainstream, handing the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement with a fresh, substantial victory. While this development should indeed be celebrated by all BDS activists anywhere, caution is called for in distinguishing between advocating such a targeted boycott as a tactic, leading to the ultimate goal of boycotting all Israeli goods and services, and as an end in itself. While the former may be necessary in some countries as a convenient tool of raising awareness and promoting debate about Israel’s colonial and apartheid regime, the latter, despite its lure, would be in direct contradiction with the stated objectives of the Palestinian boycott movement....
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/barghouti11132008.html
As dust settles from the euphoric cloud storms that were whipped up by the historic American presidential campaign win of Barack Obama; there are many, from all sides of the ethnic divide who were incredulous before the results who are now energised, inspired and full of the audacity of hope.
We have all been captivated by the mantra of the President-elect Obama "Yes we can". These three words are being echoed around the world. The outcome of the US election has also brought to the forefront of many people's minds especially here in the UK, the question of, "Whether we can?"
In the blue corner, the outspoken Trevor Phillips believes it could not happen here. Trevor writes, "It's a point about the fact that systems can sometimes work in such a way that, in spite of everybody's goodwill, in spite of the fact that everybody wants it to change, it doesn't change". In short 'institutional racism'.
In the red corner, the first black president of Oxford student union, Lewis Iwu who believes it is possible says, "If you are good enough at something then nothing can stop you. There are barriers but that should not stop you from going for it."
These are two seemingly conflicting views of the possibility of a Black prime minister in the UK. The view of the pragmatist and realist - challenged by the view of youth and idealism.
The question of whose view is right may not be so simple to determine.
The reality of the UK political system today is that it would preclude someone, even as talented as Barack Obama, from rising from relative obscurity to become Prime Minister in four years. As Phillips says, "The political system is to some extent, closed to outsiders."
From the outside looking in, many would concur that our political system does not open itself up enough to allow the everyday aspiring young Black man - to see politics as a career choice.
Also unlike our American counterparts there are no Colin Powell's or Condoleezza Rice's in the upper echelons of political life to see as aspirational role models. So maybe Trevor Phillips is right.
Conversely, Obama's message of hope, if examined more closely, is much more of a call to believe not only in him, but also for the American people to believe in themselves. To remove the clouds of doubt and believe that change can really happen.
Within this context of belief, the reasons cited by many Black people in this country who did not believe Obama would succeed; 'the American people are not ready', ''they are too prejudice', 'they will kill him first', may hide a more sinister, somewhat pernicious and unwitting belief. An unconscious belief that Black people are not able enough; that a Black man could never reach such a position.
With such a mind-set, even if the corridors of power were thrown wide open to us, would we walk in with the unwavering belief that the top job could be ours?
Some speak of, 'the lack of high-profile examples of men and women who have made it through the political maze without compromising their cultural identity'. They cite this as a viable reason why the belief may not exist within many people as it should. So maybe Lewis Iwu is right.Or perhaps the two ideals are not mutually exclusive, for one may not be able to become reality without the other.
For a Black person to rise to the rank of Prime Minster they must first believe they can attain the post and act in accordance with the ideals and practices the pursuit of such an endeavour requires.
However, it is the responsibility of the Government and its officials to make this path more visible and accessible to individuals outside of 'The Old Boy's Network'. They must send a message to Black people in the UK that irrespective of class, religion or ethnicity you are first British. Thus it is your right and within the realms of possibility if you so choose to go after the highest office in the land.
Barack Obama's win stands as a testament to the changing times we live in; a time when new dreams are being born each day. However, we must not forget that we first must wake up to make those dreams a reality... let us wake ourselves, our friends, families and more importantly our children to this new dawn.
The fact of the matter is Black people in the UK are more economically empowered, educated, socially and politically aware than any other time in our history.
This past week, the world has witnessed change in the making. It has seen that even though we may not have yet 'reached the mountain top' as Martin Luther King proclaimed. We can however, now see the path we need to travel to get there. Yes we can - you decide.
By Ken Barnes, CEO of c-a-n-i, author, speaker and trainer.
ken@c-a-n-i.com
Does this not look like one big circle of tension to you? It sure does to me, and it’s one that is growing far too tight in tension now. As a result, it could only be a matter of days, weeks, or months before one nation pulls the trigger to ignite World War III (WWIII).Sources:1) http://www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com/israelnews/politics/80-political/335-warnings-from-world-leaders-all-within-72-hours-.html2) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=amM6gBY9JgJA&refer=home3) http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iyTh4daEIukZscHQWC558dEr3x5gD94BR7FG04) http://www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com/israelnews/israel-news/83-israeli-news/407-israel-war-on-iran-on-the-radar.html
http://marcuscyganiak.blogspot.com/2008/11/world-leaders-receive-threats.html
I have never cried when a poitician has been elected to office. I cried when my soccer team won the European Cup, I cry sometimes at the end of movies, but never for something like this. Yet on the night of November 4th 2008, in my house in in Wales, I cried with happieness. Because about 4000 miles away history was being made, and despite not living in the US I felt like a part of this historical event.
I couldn't vote or donate so during the capaign I decorated my Bebo & Mysapce pages with Obama layouts. I blogged encouraging people who were eligible, to vote & told the world why I believe in Barack Obama.
And then, after following the campaign for at least a year, the outcome I'd been hoping for happened.
Congratulations to Senator Obama, you deserve this!
I really wanted to congratulate Mr Obama Personally, but I guess that is just a dream among many dreams.
Congratulations
I really really admire Mr Barack Obama. I'm a Muslim Business Owner in the UK with Connection to Middle East and I can tell you that from my circle of friends from all diverse beliefs, muslims, jews, christians and entire human race, we are all united celebrating your victory and appointment as President of the Uniter States of America.
I want to contribute in anyway I can to make America successful under Obama. I want to be a supporter and promote peace and prosperity worldwide.
I own a few internet sites one of which is www.umicity.com which is similar to facebook and I am working on building a global revenue sharing Business Network a platform to enable global companies to trade online, revenues are givenout to members and community to support causes to promote entrepreneurship in developing countries.
I want to be an instrument for change promoting peace,love, respect and harmony worldwide and would like to firstly ask your permission to promote your sites on my sites for free, also I would like to promote Obama in UK and Middle East.
I am certainly confident that the world would be a better place under Mr Obama.
I hope one day Mr Barack Obama can see my message to him, that the whole World loves him with every atom of our heart and all over the world are many people like me who are prepared to support internationally. I just wish every leader of the world to be Obama! :)
Yours truly and love from your no.1 supporter :)Sammy HegabChairmanUmicom Group Plc47 - 49 Park Royal RoadLondonNW10 7LQ
Many people who know me and my pioneering equality work in the UK will find this post, in particular, rather strange, and might, in fact, fall off their chairs in some surprise! But that is the beauty of evolving in life from one stage to another. If we are learning, we are always developing and always changing perspectives. If we are entrenched in what we believe and have closed minds, we've stopped learning and are in danger of solidifying into fossilised rocks of dubious certainty. It has to be far more exciting to learn!
Being on a holiday in Chicago by myself has allowed for a lot of free thinking time and I believe the most profound thought I might have had on the whole trip was triggered by a comment from a member of an online diversity group I had joined. Some members had not taken kindly to comments by two other French members and had blasted them somewhat for their views. One member, in particular was so upset by this, she wrote:
"I am very disenchanted with a group entitled Diversity for Obama that does not welcome diverse comments from its members and does not stop to think that everyone may not be familiar with email etiquette."
She had made an excellent point which immediately gave me a new insight into my own work, as I had spent the last 15 years advocating diversity in very strong terms. Retired from it now, it was easier to see the wood from the trees and appreciate that accepting true diversity, not the cosmetic form like our recent 'Black History Month' etc., actually comes with a cost for each group/individual.
“Mad about The One. The US media have been captivated by Obama, at the expense of their curiosity and scepticism.”
This is the title of an article by Harold Evans in The Guardian on November 1, 2008. He resorts to the bias he decries in his one-sided column. I have reproduced it below in its entirety, along with my annotations {…} . Phrases that I comment upon are in boldface.
It's fitting that the cynicism "vote early and vote often" is commonly attributed to Chicago's Democratic boss, mayor Richard Daley, who famously voted the graveyards in 1960 to help put John Kennedy in the White House. In this 2008 race, it's the American media that have voted very early and often. They long ago elected the star graduate of Chicago's Democratic machine, Barack Obama. {Obama is a hardly a “graduate“ of the machine. What about Harvard Law, Columbia, etc.?}
I am not talking of editorials in newspapers, though Obama has the preponderance of the endorsements over John McCain. Obama certainly deserves the credit for recruiting impressive advisers and running a more efficient campaign machine than any one in the US's political history.
What's troubling to anyone old-fashioned enough to care about standards in journalism is the news coverage in mainstream media. Forget the old notions of objectivity, fairness, thoroughness, and so on. The nastiest rumours on both sides haven't been published, but the coverage has been slavishly on the side of "the one". {“Slavish”? Evans’s description.}
If you're familiar with The Graham Norton show which airs on BBC Two, tune in to Wednesday's episode for a peek at the latest in political fashion chic, Obama pajamas - Ojamas. You can order yours at Ojamas Sleepwear. Shipping to the UK is approximately $25 USD. The show airs at 22:00 on BBC Two, November 5th.
![[A British soldier patrols the northern suburbs of the southern Iraqi city of Basra. One of Britain's most authoritative judicial figures last night delivered a blistering attack on the invasion of Iraq, describing it as a serious violation of international law, and accusing Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante". (Photograph: Dave Clark/AFP/Getty images)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/britishsoldier1118.jpg "britishsoldier1118.jpg")
