Black (and others) Nationalism and History

Hannibal was not the ruler of Carthage*

After reading Satan the next chapter of Malcolm X's autobiography is saved. It basically explains that after listening to the initial teachings of Elijah Muhammad Malcolm through himself into extensive reading of the prisons library with a particular focus on the few books covering African and "Negro" History. He also gives an explanation for why the Nation of Islam's teachings including the nutty parts were so easily accepted by so many Black Americans. By erasing the Black Americans history both his African heritage, not only were most Black names European, but there last names were either those of a slave master or the generic "Freeman" which still carried an association to slavery. And the knowledge of his experiences in the "New World", Malcolm claims, and I have no reason to doubt him, that in school a very prestigious one in Lansing Michigan had only one paragraph on the whole of Negro history. American society had created a void in the intellectual and emotional being of most Blacks which meant they were quick to embrace teachings and philosophy's like Elijah's that filled that void.

The teachings of Mr. Muhammad stressed how history had been "whitened"-when white men had written history books, the black man simply had been left out. Mr. Muhammad couldn't have said anything that would have struck me much harder. I had never forgotten how when my class, me and all of those whites, had studied seventh-grade United States history back in Mason, the history of the Negro had been covered in one paragraph, and the teacher had gotten a big laugh with his joke,"Negroes' feet are so big that when they walk, they leave a hole in the ground."This is one reason why Mr. Muhammad's teachings spread so swiftly all over the United States,among all Negroes, whether or not they became followers of Mr. Muhammad. The teachings ring true-to every Negro.

This is one area where I can totally relate. Having grown up in Britain as a mixed Celt (my parents are Welsh and Irish and my ancestors are Scottish) the concept of "Britishness" is heavily dominated by "Englishness". One of the main reasons Nationalist groups like Plaid and the SNP maintain a sizeable support base is because a lot of Celts will never feel part of a Great Britain because its just another extension of England. With the exception of Scotland I never learnt anything about Wales or Ireland that wasn't heavily linked to England until Sixth Form history. And even with Scotland it was limited to a bit a bout the Jacobite rebellions after we had looked at the Stewart's (so it was really just an addendum to the Civil War lessons) and a few brief biography's of a couple of clever Scottish inventors though they were presented as British inventors with just a brief mention that they came from Edinburgh or Glasgow.

I know from first hand experience one of the few areas were both Plaid and SNP have been very popular has been the education reforms focus on Celtic history and culture. I myself once I started to learn about Celtic history and mythology, in my own free time became something of a cultural nationalist for a brief period. Fortunately reading the work of critical historians about national myths like the Jacobite rebellions and the fact that most "English loving Traitors" in Celtic history did so purely for monetary reasons convinced me of the importance of class over nation. For example most Welsh Nationalists venerate Owain Glyndwr (Owen Glower) as a sort of Welsh Braveheart. The problem is he used to be a staunch supporter of England he was part of the Anglo-Welsh Gentry and he served in its army as a noble officer. He only led the rebellion after his lands were confiscated by a personal friend of Henry IV and English racism barred him from solving his grievances legally.

It also helped that many Blacks never received sufficient education in general, Malcolm for an example says he didn't know what the word genetic actually meant until AFTER he heard Yacub's history. And when he looked it up the discovery of the dominant and recessive gene structure seemed to support the tales of Yacub the ancient eugenicist.

Unfortunately while Malcolm came to learn enough to see absurd fables like Yacub's history and every white man is literally the devil for what they were he till his dying day believed in quite a few fictions.

I perceived, as I read, how the collective white man had been actually nothing but a piratical opportunist who used Faustian machinations to make his own Christianity his initial wedge in criminal conquests. First, always "religiously," he branded "heathen" and "pagan" labels upon ancient non-white cultures and civilizations. The stage thus set, he then turned upon his non-white victims his weapons of war.

What's the problem here? There is no such thing as a "Collective" White man, never has been and never will be. For example the English language gets the word Slave from the word Slav. The Slavs are a mixed group of people from Transcaucasia and have lived for centuries in Eastern Europe. They are a diverse bunch but two things they all have in common is their pale skin and their shared history of poor treatment and oppression at the hands of other white Europeans.

Google assures me this is what an average Slav looks like

Furthermore the usage of the labels of heathen and pagan were not exclusively directed at "coloureds" Protestant and Catholic Europe branded each other by that terminology all the time and it lead to a lot of bloodshed. The Thirty Years war being the most blatant example involving most of Europe and decimated entire populations of several of the warring kingdoms. 

I don't see any black faces do you?

Pop quiz which nation is the following qoutation about?

They use their fields mostly for pasture. Little is cultivated and even less is sown. The problem here is not the quality of the soil but rather the lack of industry on the part of those who should cultivate it. This laziness means that the different types of minerals with which hidden veins of the earth are full are neither mined nor exploited in any way. They do not devote themselves to the manufacture of flax or wool, nor to the practice of any mechanical or mercantile act. Dedicated only to leisure and laziness, this is a truly barbarous people. They depend on their livelihood for animals and they live like animals.

The answer is Ireland, I'm sure its sentiment seems very familiar if not its target.

　I read how, entering India-half a billion deeply religious brown people-the British white man, by1759, through promises, trickery and manipulations, controlled much of India through Great Britain's East India Company. The parasitical British administration kept tentacling out to half of the subcontinent. In 1857, some of the desperate people of India finally mutinied-and, excepting the African slave trade, nowhere has history recorded any more unnecessary bestial and ruthless human carnage than the British suppression of the non-white Indian people.

Again the Indian experience does not show a collective white man but rather the opposite, in addition to a British East India Company, there was also a French and Dutch East India Company and several more. And all of them got up to the same dirty tricks the British Company did until they lost controlled and were expelled from India.

　　Over 115 million African blacks-close to the 1930's population of the United States-were murdered or enslaved during the slave trade. And I read how when the slave market was glutted, the cannibalistic white powers of Europe next carved up, as their colonies, the richest areas of the black continent. And Europe's chancelleries for the next century played a chess game of naked exploitation and power from Cape Horn to Cairo.

Again both examples disprove Malcolm's assertion the slave trade was not an example of White collective action but individual competition. Portugal also exported millions of slaves to Brazil via its colony in Angola. And for a time Spain and England (and then Britain) went to war over who would dominate the North Atlantic slave trade.

And of course I'm sure we're all familiar with the White racists favourite argument for slavery. "Blacks had slaves too"! This is true but aside from academic accuracy its irrelevant. It is not an acceptable defence that someone else does it too, its the equivalence of "an older boy told me to do it".

And then we come to big one, Empire. Its undeniably true that Europe and the USA colonised vast swathes of territory and carried out brutal exploitation to fund the wealth of their rulers. But again it directly contradicts the idea of a "Collective White man" not only where these Empires in direct competition with each other, buts this competition drove them to greater heights of cruelty and expansion. Conquering foreign lands and stealing there natural wealth wasn't just an exercise in greed it was also a necessity, failure to take this territory was an open for your rivals to exploit. Oh and Ireland was also one of the earliest colonies, British immigrants were actually called Settlers and in addition to them monopolising the government and landed estates they Anglicised the culture and nearly destroyed the Irish language.

But perhaps I'm misunderstanding Malcolm's usage of the term Collective. When I hear the term collective I associate it with concious collaboration, maybe he just meant that since so many White nations acted this way they could be lumped together. I know of several Black Nationalists who clearly state that is why they hate white people. If so there's one severe problem with that analysis is its highly hypocritical.

Empires and slavery and militaristic expansion have existed on every continent. For example a lot of Black Nationalist have come to regard Hannibal of Carthage the same way Welsh Nationalists view Owain Glyndwr. Because he was a skilled General from Carthage (Tunisia, and Northern African Coastline) and defeated Rome (A symbol of White power) several times during the second Punic War. He even did so most famously using War Elephants probably the most African symbol there is.

There's just one massive problem here, Carthage was in many ways just as despotic as the wicked white Romans. They were an Oligarchic Republic similar to Rome they also shared Rome's corruption, they had conquered territories along the Mediterranean coast and in Spain. They also had slaves, in fact they probably stopped raiding for slaves because the Romans outlawed it in their treaties with Carthage. Hannibal's march on Rome was less a blow for the freedom of the Africans and more about reversing Carthage earlier defeats and becoming fully independent again which would have involved being free to launch slave raids again. But that's just one example.

The flag of the Benin Empire, clearly a Peaceful land

As I've said the continent of Africa was full of Empires, and since White people were in Europe who do you think they fought,conquered and exploited? The above is the Benin Empire it lasted from 1440-1897 it wasn't very big, the modern day nation of Benin is of similar size. But it was still a despotic regime that saw the rise of Edo people over neighbouring tribes. Culturally the Empire was quite tolerant but other ethnic groups leaders were appointed by the Edo dynasty and ultimate authority lay with the Edo clans. And the Edo Kings power as their flag demonstrates was martial.

"The King of Benin can in a single day make 20,000 men ready for war, and, if need be, 180,000, and because of this he has great influence among all the surrounding peoples. . . . His authority stretches over many cities, towns and villages. There is no King thereabouts who, in the possession of so many beautiful cities and towns, is his equal."

 Another snag is that in addition to local Empires Muslim and Arab encroachment caused great pain and suffering to the African peoples conquered by them. In the Congo the main opposition to total Belgian control was the presence of Arab slave traders, and the Slave trade in Eastern Africa served to enrich Arabic lands. Unsurprisingly Malcolm a fervent Muslim was silent on this issue(though its possible he didn't know), and Arabs also being of colour tend to get a free pass by current Black Nationalists since acknowledging this chapter of history conflicts with their simplistic black and white (pun half intended) views. In fact Islamic slavery of indigenous Africans gave European Imperialism moral cover as conquest of Muslim controlled territories like the Sudan was seen as a moral crusade.

It was Africa's history of repressive governments even after independence that kept the Black Panther Party from embracing Black Nationalism and an uncritical Pan Africanism. Black Nationalism they argued would only lead to a Black Bourgeoisie and a Black oppressor class.  

But lets leave Africa for now and lets move onto Asia or as Malcolm called them the "Yellow men".

 I listen today to the radio, and watch television, and read the headlines about the collective white man's fear and tension concerning China. When the white man professes ignorance about why the Chinese hate him so, my mind can't help flashing back to what I read, there in prison,about how the blood forebears of this same white man raped China at a time when China was trusting and helpless. Those original white "Christian traders" sent into China millions of pounds of opium. By1839, so many of the Chinese were addicts that China's desperate government destroyed twenty thousand chests of opium. The first Opium War was promptly declared by the white man. Imagine!
　　Declaring war upon someone who objects to being narcotized! The Chinese were severely beaten,with Chinese-invented gunpowder.
　　The Treaty of Nanking made China pay the British white man for the destroyed opium; forced open China's major ports to British trade; forced China to abandon Hong Kong; fixed China's import tariffs so low that cheap British articles soon flooded in, maiming China's industrial development.
　　After a second Opium War, the Tientsin Treaties legalized the ravaging opium trade, legalized a British-French-American control of China's customs. China tried delaying that Treaty's ratification;Peking was looted and burned.
　　"Kill the foreign white devils!" was the 1901 Chinese war cry in the Boxer Rebellion. Losing again, this time the Chinese were driven from Peking's choicest areas. The vicious, arrogant white man put upthe famous signs, "Chinese and dogs not allowed."Red China after World War II closed its doors to the Western white world. Massive Chinese agricultural, scientific, and industrial efforts are described in a book that Life magazine recently published. Some observers inside Red China have reported that the world never has known such a hate-white campaign as is now going on in this non-white country where, present birth-rates continuing, in fifty more years Chinese will be half the earth's population. And it seems that some Chinese chickens will soon come home to roost, with China's recent successful nuclear tests.

I'm sure those Zen meditation types have a land of peace and equality right?

Oh, I guess not

To be fair to Malcolm he is right China suffered horribly at the hands of Europe and America, I mean you can't get more disgusting then the Opium Wars. Chinese refer to this period as the century  of humiliation to this day, and frequent policy announcements in the People's Republic claim to have ended that century by building a new China. But he forgets that Japan was also involved, not only did it go on to carve up China it also helped put down the Boxer Rebellion.In fact they were the largest military component of the alliance.

The Japanese were noted for their skill in beheading Boxers or people suspected of being Boxers. General Chaffee commented, "It is safe to say that where one real Boxer has been killed... fifty harmless coolies or laborers on the farms, including not a few women and children, have been slain."

 So again this Collective label doesn't really stick. Also China itself before being brought so low by its rivals was itself  quite an expansionist power. Though to be even fairer to Malcolm this belief in China as a peaceful neighbour isn't just a few I've heard peddled by Nationalists, I've heard some liberal historians say similar things. I can only assume Orientalism to be at work since only a brief glance at Chinese history proves this to be nonsense.

The closest I've heard to an elaboration of China being a land of peace was to either chance the subject to discuss China's many contributions in philosophy, or scapegoat the Mongolians who had seized control of China in the 13th century. Its true that being incorporated into the Mongolian Empire led to Chinese forces being led into foreign fields but it doesn't cover everything. For just one example China has a very long history of invading and occupying Vietnam.

But even if we accepted this explanation we also have to concede that all the territories of Modern China to be inherently Chinese, which would be a unique concession indeed and something the Uighurs and Tibetans would probably query.

But even if this weren't the case, there's still plenty of domination in Chinese history. The Chinese Emperors were not particularly benevolent, women could be treated viciously, foot binding comes to mind but so does the concubine system. Then there were inter ethnic rivalries, the last Imperial Dynasty of China the Qing were Manchu's from Manchuria. There corruption and impotence against foreign powers inflamed ethnic Han Nationalism so much so that if it wasn't for the leaders of the Kuoming Tang (KMT) like Dr Sun being so outspokenly republican and inclusive of China's ethnic groups the 1911 Revolution may well have resulted in the replacing of the Manchu Court with a Han one.

Ancient China also practised slavery and that did include the rare African (Chinese explorers and merchants made it to East Africa and the middle East).

And furthermore to hammer home the Class>ethnicity theme I'm getting at those very same rulers of China Malcolm rightly points out got a raw deal from the white powers had no problem relying on the support of those white powers when their own privilege was threatened. For example remember Gordon? the man who died in Khartoum well he had an unusual nickname "Chinese" Gordon. He got helping the Chinese Empire to victory in Taiping rebellion which was after the Opium Wars.

And during the Boxer rebellion the Imperial Court favoured siding with the foreign Legations over the Boxers but only changed their minds due to the popularity of Boxers amongst the population.

"Perhaps their magic is not to be relied upon; but can we not rely on the hearts and minds of the people? Today China is extremely weak. We have only the people's hearts and minds to depend upon. If we cast them aside and lose the people's hearts, what can we use to sustain the country?"

And even then Imperial forces were more likely then not to fire on and detain boxers rather then unite to drive out the foreign armies. Naturally this uncertainty had a disastrous effect on the conduct of the
 rebellion and it was inevitably defeated.

And of course we have the last Emperor of China, Puyi  deposed in 1912 at the ripe old age of 6. Not only did Puyi and his predecessors employ outright slaves (the Eunuchs) but after being fired he eventually found a new job administrating the lovely land of Manchukuo. Japanese annexed Manchuria giving legitamacy to the Empire of the Sun's vile exploitation and crimes.

An example of the leisure activities of Puyi's benefactors

No account of my childhood would be complete without mentioning the eunuchs. They waited on me when I ate, dressed and slept; they accompanied me on my walks and to my lessons; they told me stories; and had rewards and beatings from me, but they never left my presence. They were my slaves; and they were my earliest teachers.

In conclusion none white nations were just as prone to violence and domination as anywhere else. The only difference was that whitey was more successful at the Empire game, which effectively boils none White Nationalist arguments down to a case of jealousy. As much as I admire and respect Malcolm X's intelligence and opinions his theses on world history needs more work. A shame he'll never get the chance to revise his work thanks the "Honourable" Elijah Muhammad.

*He became Carthage's Suffete (similar to Rome's Pro Consul) but his policies were unpopular and the Carthaginian Aristocracy the real rulers of Carthage force him into exile.

Truth About Tech

Yesterday, whilst checking my inbox I found a polite email from a reader, well actually they said they just found me after doing a search about Trade Unions and Labour Rights blogs subjects which I have more then a passing interest in. So maybe they'll become one in the future, anyway the reason they got in touch was to bring to my attention a graphic they've made illustrating the state of the cyber economies manufacturing sector. You know the people who build our mobile phones, laptops, plasma screen tellies and Ipads to name just a few must have items. This is the second time I've made a post based on a readers email, and I just want you all to know that on the off chance someone sends me a line I do read it, I of course can't promise a response but if you have something you want me to take a look at I will do so.

It is quite enlightening, I'm sure we're all familiar with China's role in producing apple products, if only because they seem to produce everything these days, well that and because Apple's front companies have once again strove for and achieved the impossible, by being perhaps the most abusive employers to operate in the People's Republic a competition with an exceptionally low bar indeed.

Here's a couple of highlights:





Anyway on to the Image




The poster has asked for some feedback, so if you have anything to add, criticism, praise or points for improvement feel free to leave comments. Speaking for myself I think its pretty good, the only thing I'd add is that it might be better to do a few more about Canada and Europe's consumption of technology and any specific problems relating to them. While I enjoy a good excuse to criticise Eagleland it would be extremely dishonest of me to not point out that all Developed nations with extensive consumer markets play a part in fuelling this cycle and the only way to completely end injustice in the work place is through global solutions. Still this is welcome information, I was most surprised to see Hungary on the list but then again the EU is at heart a club for European Industrialists putting labour rights quite low on the priority lists.

Well the image is made under Creative Commons so feel free to use it and spread the word as you will.

To Make up for the Quiet Period

Sorry for the lack of updates, things have been very busy for me right now, hopefully I'll be back posting soon. I do have a few mostly finished drafts though they were about special days on the calendar so expect a few sorry this is late but.... introductory posts.

Anyway to make up for the lack of updates heres a music video, but not just any video, its the theme song of "Stalin" the main character of the 2006 Indian musical film Stalin, don't worry though its in English so you can sing along. In addition to being a strange subject for composition it is also very catchy enjoy it.

Maoist India: The Search for Economic Justice

Several months ago in my last post about India you may recall that I called it strange how by all accounts a dangerous rebellionin India a nation with both the fastest growing economy and population should go almost unnoticed while serious but less potentially world changing ones in Jammu and Kashmir often get a few pieces in the news papers and a talky bit on the evening news if only when violence flairs up. Hell Indian Islamic and Hindu Terrorism often get write ups, and terrorism is the weapon of the small and weak fringe elements. Well it really irked me this seeming blackout of an important international affairs story, so I did some digging to find some more information. I found a few more blogs and a couple of articles by more mainstream news sites but very much in the "also today" snippets almost like a montage of international text. I also found a 30 minute (give or take a few seconds) by who else but Free Speech Radio News. Its from 2009 and it focuses on one part of India and the "Red Corridor" the Bastar forests. The forests of Bastar are the Naxalites most entrenched area so the documentary asked why is that? Well the local population for the most part support them which is an absolute necessity for a Guerilla movement. Ernesto "Che" Guevara said this separates a Guerilla from a bandit in his Guerilla Warfare "The Guerilla fighter counts on the full support of the people. This is an indispensable condition"(1). The documentary asks why that is, why don't the police or local government have that special place in there peoples hearts? I should point out that I am the one who made this video (which explains the poor job) I've been making videos of FSRN's radio broadcasts in my spare time for a few months now, in order to both practice my editing skills and take another step or two in Online Activism, by practising what's called Guerilla advertising. 

 

 "In most places around India, Maoists are an underground hit and run force... but in Central India's Bastar forests, they're well-entrenched. Join us today for an encore presentation of "Maoist India, the search for economic justice." As I've mentioned I've also found a few more blogs in addition to Naxal Revolution, here they are Naxalite Rage and Naxal War. Hope you find this information useful. 1: Chapter One, page 16

India's Growing Maoist Rebellion

From FSRN


In India’s rural forests, mining corporations and state militias have launched a violent assault on the Maoist guerillas and landless tribal communities.

Activist and author Arundhati Roy spent weeks with the Maoist fighters in the conflict zone and her time there is the subject of a new book called Walking with the Comrades.

It’s a first-hand account of the hidden side of the global economy and an analysis of a long-running and often misunderstood armed movement. She joins us from New York.

The above interview is about a conflict that is as important as it is ignored by the mainstream media, the Naxalite (Maoist) rebellion in India. The lack of interest in this story confuses me, its not a new story there has been a Naxalite movement in some form since 1967 with a Peasants Revolt in the village of Naxalbari (where they get there name). It also can't be that India is one of those far off and strange nations we know nothing about, India was the Crown Jewel of the British Empire until 1947 and has been a very prominent member of the Commonwealth ever since. And even if they weren't India is a fast growing economy and soon to overtake China as the most populated nation on the planet. Maybe is because the internal conflicts of India are blacked out? again no we see news reports from Kashmir and the Pakistan border with India all the time when violence flares up. Then there was the tragic Mumbai attacks which opened the door to reporting on India's religiously motivated violence a legacy not restricted to its Muslim population.

But when was the last time you saw a Maoist or any kind of "Red" news story? I can remember a couple about Nepal when they successfully entered Kathmandu and forced the government to flee but that is it. And while I don't wish to insult Nepal not all nations are equals and India is in a bigger league then Nepal so I don't see why they broke the blackout.

Maybe its because the Nepalese Maoists are a serious threat while the Indian Naxals aren't? well no because again the Naxalite movement represent a very serious threat to the Indian State just look at the below map of there strengths



Looks pretty serious to me, I wouldn't want to see that if I was in charge of India.


I think the answer is cultural. Since the end of the Cold War all those on the side of Liberal Capitalism were quite jubilant they saw not only the end of the Eastern bloc and the USSR but also all forms of organisation differing from the Western norm. They had some evidence for this, Cuba was on the verge of collapse due to losing all its main trading partners, China was of course advancing "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics"* North Korea was suffering a similar collapse to Cuba only with the added bonus of a famine. Vietnam adopted Market Socialism or "Socialism with Vietnamese characteristics" with neighbouring and oft forgotten Laos following suit. And all those nasty third world Guerilla armies where facing severe equipment shortages without there big friends support or attention, is it any wonder that Francis Fukuyama chose this period to release his most famous work "The End of History and The Last Man"?

What I'm trying to say is that after all that reassurance that Communism was dying any evidence to the contrary like a large and resilient Guerilla movement in one of the richest and most developed third world nation seems embarrassing. A News outlet is only as good as its reputation after all. I can remember watching a Channel Four news report about some developments in Zimbabwe with the on location reporter telling Mr Snow that they were awaiting Mugabe's Politburo meeting to end, Mr Snow said words to the effect of " A Politburo hey? Not to many of them around these days is there" and then they both chuckled a little. This is the same reason Communist parties in the former USSR and Eastern Bloc are constantly referred to as Pensioner social groups because those currently in power even in Russia want there past to remain in the past while they build there own new national projects.

Still I find that highly illogical, even if your some right wing Cold Warrior nut you should be very interested in the Naxalite conflict, if only to lament those damn bleeding heart Democrats in the White House.

If you do want to know more about the Naxalites and this secretive war in India I can add my personal recommendation to Arundhati Roy's Walking With the Comrades, and the Blog Naxal Revolution ran by Indian Maoists and has many updates on the struggle as well as reviews and analysis of the other books and research done on the Naxalite Movement.


* Though its a little strange that that policy involves greater market liberalisation, since modern capitalism was forced on China by European powers hoping to increase exploitation of its resources.

Afghanistan in the 1970's

I thought this old documentary though blatantly biased and short would be of interest to some who have been appalled by Afghanistan's bloody recent history. Its from 1973 and aside from an outdated pronunciation of the Pashtun Tribes is an interesting look into a time when Afghanistan was relatively speaking at peace* and was slowly building its way to modernity.

Prince Daoud the establisher of Afghanistan's Republican days came to power in a coup aided the Afghan Army Officer Corps and by the Pro-Soviet Communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) specifically the Parcham faction. And whilst officially improving Soviet-Afghan relations Daoud was not above getting funding from other quarters. Afghanistan had since the establishment of the USSR been considered like Eastern Europe to be client state of Moscow by the West, since it shared a direct land border with the USSR trying to force the issue wasn't really an option if the West wished the Cold War to remain Cold. However Daoud soon lost interest in his Parcham friends and isolated them from government, he also allowed himself to be courted by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan perhaps the most Anti Soviet nations in the Middle East at the time. Indicating to Moscow that he wished to break from the Soviet Union and embrace other hostile powers.

Happily for the Soviet Union the issue resolved itself in April 78 when Daoud tried to mobilise the Army to destroy the PDPA and secure the home front. This backfired for two reasons, 1) the PDPA's other faction Khalq lead by future Presidents Taraki and Amin had been hard at work recruiting military units to there cause as they'd been expecting a crackdown for sometime.
2) Even the Military Officers and units who hadn't been recruited by Khalq were as the documentary makes clear trained in the Soviet Union meaning they either where sympathetic to the PDPA or thought a close alliance to the USSR must be maintained so rebelled and by the 27th of April stormed the Presidential palace and killed him.

That event became known as the Saur Revolution and heralded the rise of the PDPA and the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Afghanistan. A year later Islamist groups threatened by the DRA's modernisation drives (the first time Soviet forces engaged the "Mujihadeen" once in retaliation for a riot in Herat that involved the butchering of two hundred civilian technical advisers and was sparked by the governments announcement that females were to be taught in schools too) would cause so much trouble for the DRA that the Soviet Union believed the only way to prevent its total disintegration and threaten its own Asian Soviet Socialist Republics was to intervene directly in December of 79.

The rest as they say is history.


Video download link

* Afghanistan has never really enjoyed complete peace, due to both the broken up terrain lack of roads and vibrant and diverse ethnic framework ensured even during the times free of major military campaigns there were always banditry, and clashes with remote tribes.

Libya is next?

Well the revolt has continued to gain momentum throughout the Arab and African regions. Bahrain has seen its Shia majority demanding a fair share of there nation from there Sunni Autocrats, and its King appears to have killed any chance of a compromise when he took part in a clamp down against protesters that left several dead. Iran was also in the firing lines, though despite wishful thinking its doubtful at present that the current protests will be anything over then a repeat of the election demonstrations as the Greens unlike the revolts in Egypt, and Tunisia do not have the support of the poor, they are instead a coalition of the wealthy urban elites who are resentful of the constraints the Islamic Republic places on there personal liberties both economic and social, and are lead by on of the Republic's key strong man whom carried out one of the regimes worst atrocities in 1988. Though the continued use of armed suppression should at least take the polish off the regimes moral legitimacy.

But the big story is of course concerning the great dictator of the Mediterranean, Gaddafi of Libya. It looks like this is the end for the "Islamic Socialist" demagogue. After weeks of escalating protests and violence the Libyan government has turned to the last resort to prop up a crumbling Autocracy the bayonet. The military has been ordered to crush the protests and his son Saif Gaddafi went on television to announce a fight to the last man. "Now comes the role of the National Guard and the Army, we will not lose one inch of this land. 60 years ago they defended Libya from the colonialists, now they will defend it from drug addicts. Most of he Libyans are intelligent, they are not Baltagiya (thugs) Benghazi is a million and a half not the few thousands who are in the streets. We will flight to the last man and woman and bullet. We will not lose Libya. We will not let Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and BBC trick us.

We will live in Libya and die in Libya." And even that appears to be failing him. Two Air-force Colonels have taken there jets and scarpered over the sea to Malta, not only is the loss of two senior military officers an embarrassment but it confirmed reports that the Air Force has been ordered to bomb rebelling towns and settlements. The second city Benghazi has effectively fallen and all is far from well in the capital. Another severe embarrassment is that the Libyan diplomatic corps is also in revolt, at present the diplomatic revolt includes Malaysia, Morocco and India as well as most of the staff at the U.N. including its deputy. This perhaps even more so then the defections from the military could severely undermine the regime to the point of collapse, diplomats and ambassadors are crucial to creating to creating a favourable image of a nation and its government to the international community and given there high level access have information on at least some of the skeletons in the regimes cupboard like for example the prison massacre .

Of course had this occurred back in the 1980's or 1990's the diplomats defecting wouldn't matter to much, after all, the regime was close to pariah status after the US and UK blamed Lockerbie on the Libyan government, what few states that did support Libya where part of the anti-imperialist camp and probably would stick with Libya regardless out of a group survival instinct. However in the early 2000's that all changed, Europe particularly Berlusconi and Blair where keen to re-rehabilitate Libya in the eyes of the international community why do this for an old foe, especially since this was the war on terror and Libya had been caught arming the IRA and the aforementioned Lockerbie attack? well it had less to do with an spirit of forgiveness and more to do with the fact that Libya is a mostly untapped energy giant just sitting in Europe's doorstep. Well to fair it wasn't just oil, Italy was able to use Libya as a dumping ground for its illegal immigrants and refugees, where I'm sure they received the best in humane treatment. Despite the cynical nature of big business this does at least mean that Libya has become dependent on economic ties, which are now in danger of being severed, so overall it looks like his days are numbered.

Are Muslims getting a fair deal in India?

Been watching the Doha lectures recently. This one about the state of the Muslim minority in India is very interesting and not just limited to Muslims and India. You can really take them out and replace with any minority group and there position within a state and society.

India has the largest affirmative action policies in the world but even the advocates of the governments record One a Cabinet Minister freely admit that there system isn't working perfectly at present. Then of course their are warnings about the rise of the Hindu far right and there growing influence in certain sectors of Indian society. Hmmm.... remind you of anywhere?