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Distant Echoes – ‘Began and Sharon you got blood on your hands’

11 Saturday Jan 2014

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ANALYSIS – The year was 1982, the dates September 16 to 18.

Over those three days, some three thousand defenceless civilians were massacred by Christian Phalange militia in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Southern Lebanon.

The people who were killed in the most appalling way were the Palestinians, who were meant to be protected by the Israeli army who had just invaded Lebanon to destroy the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

The Israeli army simply floodlight the camps at night so their allies could have a clearer view, as they pursued their murderous path.

A report commisioned by Israel following the largest demonstrations in the nation’s history, found the Defence Chief, one Ariel Sharon, personally responsible for the massacres at Sabra and Shatila, something the protesters who had chanted ‘Begin and Sharon – you got blood on your hands’ had always believed.

It is often said that the world changed after the events of 2001 โ€“ that is clearer the case.

But, things changed after Sabra and Shatila, also.

So, if there is a fitting epitaph to the architects to that murderous war – Menachem Begin and his defence minister, Ariel Sharon, whose death was announced today after eight years in a coma, then surely it is the events over those three days in the camps that are known as Sabra and Shatila.

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๐Ÿ”ฅ Distant Echoes – ‘Britain’s Burning’ (rioting after Mark Duggan’s fatal shooting) ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง – ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ

08 Wednesday Jan 2014

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DISTANT ECHOES – Reminders from the Template News, Current Affairs and Sport Website.

If the television pictures are to be believed Britain is burning.

A post 9/11 generation aware of the power of the media image have attacked their townโ€™s iconic buildings setting them alight.

Trouble began in Tottenhamโ€™s Broadwater Farm Estate when a young Black man called Mark Duggan, was shot dead by a policeman.

When the dead manโ€™s family approached their local police station to get some answers โ€“ amazingly the police had not spoken to them -a young girl was alleged to have been pushed aside.

Suddenly there was a night of looting.

The police did not overact โ€“ that was the one thing they have got right in this very sorry saga. Small scale rioting โ€“ awful for the people trapped in this โ€“ followed in some of the poorest boroughs of London, and has touched Liverpool and Birmingham also.

The police will get criticism for everything โ€“ but they should have acted fast after shooting a young BLACK man dead in an area where twenty years ago there were riots.

Of course most police officers are nothing like they way they were perceived then.

But appearances count for everything.

Todayโ€™s youngsters are very young and those who are rioting have grown up in a background of poverty in the sixth wealthiest country in the world.

Ironically in what is also the worldโ€™s first democracy they also have no voice.

(published 8 August 2011) https://nayabchohan.com//?s=britain%27s+burning&search=Go

Posted by | Filed under Analysis ๐Ÿ™Œ, Comment, Race Relations, Social Affairs

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England’s Ashes Whitewash was entirely predictable (and it’s not the fault of the players!)

06 Monday Jan 2014

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

The warning signs were there a long time before last summer, that this English cricket side were living on borrowed time, that it would only take a highly focused thoroughly approach and this side would be taken apart.

Trouble was the cricket establishment that included the very dull opening batsmen that was Graham Gooch, was not listening, perhaps seduced by their superior coaching methods or even their own belief in their ability to spot up and coming talent.

Of course last summer was closer than the 3-0 result suggests, however that was not the point – in English conditions this side has as good a chance as any in world at winning a rubber. It’s when they move away from their familiar surroundings that they are found wanting. It was so against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, in 2012, and it has proved in Australia in 2013/14.

England will be rebuilding the side, and looking to the future, but unless they start showing more creatvity to team selections, as well as bravery, they are always going to struggle against opposition that took the decisions they were afraid to do so long before they meet on a cricket field.

ASHES

FIRST TEST, BRISBANE

MITCHELL JOHNSON 4/61, 5/42

AUSTRALIA WON BY 381 RUNS

SECOND TEST, ADELAIDE

MITCHELL JOHNSON 7/40

AUSTRALIA WON BY 218 RUNS

THIRD TEST, PERTH

AUSTRALIA WON BY 150 RUNS

FOURTH TEST, MELBOURNE

AUSTRALIA WON BY 8 WICKETS

FIFTH TEST, SYDNEY

AUSTRALIA WON BY 281 RUNS

AUSTRALIA WIN SERIES 5 – 0

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Will the Yasukuni shrine bring about a third world war?

03 Friday Jan 2014

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ANALYSIS –ย Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo last week angered many – friends and foe alike.

Predictably, China for whom the men that are honoured as men that died for the sacred Japanese nation in the second world war are nothing more than war criminals.

The same is of course true for South Korea with whom Tokyo is allied with, in fear of the rise of China.

And on that score, there is also Vietnam.

So, what was America’s position, as the Japanese internal affairs minister made the trip to the house of the dead souls yesterday?

Well, the state department has urged calm and called for dialogue.

Those who are predicting future conflict in Asia between China and the US may point to such visits by senior Japanese ministers to the site denounced by the world – that includes China – as the starting point for a conflict that could embroil all the key powers of South Asia.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis ๐Ÿ™Œ, Asia ๐ŸŒ, China ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ, Comment, International News, Politics ๐Ÿ’ผ ๐Ÿ—ณ ๐Ÿช–, USA ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ

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๐Ÿ‘ฆ ‘Chechen boy is dragged from his home by Russian Soldiers TEMPLATE ANALYSIS โ˜ช๏ธ

01 Wednesday Jan 2014

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DISTANT ECHOES – Reminders from The Template Website

TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

Last nightโ€™s BBC documentary Putin, Russia and The West contained perhaps the most powerful and disturbing footage broadcast on terrestrial television yet.

A boy from a village in Chechnya is dragged out of his home by Russian soldiers, he is heard screaming for his life โ€“ โ€˜hy-aa Allahโ€™ โ€“ and the narrator tells us that his body was found much later buried in a Russian base.

The pictures which were shot before the Moscow Theatre siege, and of course much earlier than Beslan, are perhaps also the first hard proof of what Russiaโ€™s soldiers were doing as they attempted to reconquer Chechnya for their president, Vladimir Putin.

Russiaโ€™s military doctrine when it comes to conquering and reconquering its restive Muslim provinces has been simple โ€“ the harder you hit them, the less likely they are to come  back again.

Russiaโ€™s soldiers were of course the original ethnic cleansers, a process that began under Ivan the Terrible is still ongoing to this day in the Caucasus republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingush Settia.

Little wonder then that the West has found it hard to accommodate Russia as a part of Europe or Nato.

๐Ÿ“บ A Chechen boy is dragged from his home by Russian soldiers ๐Ÿช– ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ

Distant Echoes – Reminders from The Template Website.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis ๐Ÿ™Œ, Breaking News ๐Ÿ“บ ๐ŸŽ™๐Ÿ—ž, Comment, International News, Pictures

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