$13 BILLIONS IN AID .....

What does Haiti  have to show for $13 billion in aid ??  A striking headline , that covered many media front pages few days ago here in the States . Depicting a real situation in Haiti , and reflecting similarities in many countries , recipients of aid and financial programs throughout the world , especially poorer nations and third world countries , whether  after wars or natural disasters or excessive poverty and inability to restart and recover .


$13 billions to Haiti after the devastating earthquake , a deadly one surely , but not worst than many other disaster hit areas of the world .except for its proximity and ties to the U.S , media coverage and big interests involvement .


My immediate educated guess would first lead me to the organizers and promoters of the aid , who probably received couple hundreds millions throughout the period for their services , the 10 top politicians in power back then and still today in the devastated country , managed to pocket 50 to 80 millions each , so we're already at a minus 7 to 800 millions of Dollars .


Another 100 mid level entrepreneurial bureaucrats , that nothing would go ahead without their help and approval , at the levels of 3 to 4 millions maybe 5 in some instances  a peace , and we further deduct a good 400 millions from the general fund . That's well over a billion .


Special projects benefiting only the  few at the top of the donating and receiving , projects to further enrich or glorify the deserving leaders , will ensure the siphoned amounts are closer to over two billion dollars . Of course every and all , without exception , helping agency or their derivative NGOs , special interest groups ,  buying , supplying  or delivering entities have a strong hand in administrating their own fees and expenses , making sure their payments and rewards are matching everyone else .


American businesses expertise proved highly competent in the game , covering many places whether in Iraq or lately Haiti , in line with everyone else , thus goes one or more billion in percentages and commissions . Suppliers , insurers and transporters charging  their highest international fees and fares playing always the highest risks are good for another billion .


We get to the good levels of around 5 billion Dollars missing or at least not productively distributed within Haiti and for long term projects to help Haitians in the future . so the real question remains and ought to be "What does Haiti have to show for 7 or 8 billion in aid ". A problem that will reoccur in many disaster areas and countries unfortunately .


Whether the Middle-East , Afghanistan , or Africa , the same scene is reigning , in our short past or in the coming years . Half the aid goes into internal and foreign corrupt pockets . My usual many thanks for your time .


     

AND THE DEBATE GOES ON .......

WE still in the West , live in societies where both freedom of thought and impenetrable regulated speech coexist . Many articles , debates and talk shows , took place lately more so in Europe and especially in France , all in the aftermath of the heinous Charlie Hebdo massacres . Most of these , debating the logic and duty of not condemning the Musslem prophet caricatures ,  consequently standing for and claiming a total freedom of expression .


All  versus some very strict anti Semitic related laws and regulations forbidding any type of expression , whether verbal , written or whatever , pertinent to the subject . famous  thinkers and writers in Europe and the States were subjected to very harsh measures and paid dearly , including imprisonment and immediate job termination for daring to discuss or question details of the Holocaust or even for criticizing the State of Israel and its policies . The latest victim being Jim Clancy , here in America , and after being the CNN  news  Anchor for more than three decades , as he was forced to resign after some controversial Twitter exchanges with pro Israel activists .


The above mentioned debates were suggesting and calling for an Islamophobic ban on such images and expressions to safeguard the feelings of six millions Musslem French , and 1.5 billion Musslem around the world , against it stands the preservation of the freedom of speech and expression , sacred for many French men and women , and many around the world , Americans included . I personally  stand for the freedom of speech and the right to express one's opinions freely .


Admitting though , that insulting others has limits , but these limits should work both ways , for theism and atheism , for different and all religions , for liberalists and conservatives , nationalists and globalists .


But the discussion should lie elsewhere in my opinion ;  we seem in these instances only to be listening to the side asking for more restrictions on free speech , eventually equaling Musslem feelings and concerns to Jewish or Israeli ones , and why are we not seriously thinking and considering to eliminate any form of restrictions on our free expression , whether it touches or criticize any one , Musslems  and Jews , Christians , Buddhists or atheist .


We can not  be fighting for freedom against only one side , freedom of expression if and when applied has to be absolute and universal , not selective . If we agree to ban , jail and destroy the livelihood of any Holocaust facts doubter , or any Israel criticizer , and this is nowadays the norm in most of the Western world , how can we then fairly refuse Musslem grievances over insulting caricatures or verbal and written degrading rhetoric !!


We are all nowadays reminded of the necessity to do and act differently , but to do and act in new ways we must learn how to think in different ways , to learn how to look at injustices with a just and fair mind . Only then the rest will follow .


As always , my many thanks for your time and patience .




      

WE BLEW IT ......

Amid criticism , the White House admitted fault by not sending president Obama , vice president  Biden , or other  top-ranking official to the unity rally in Paris on Sunday , where more than 40 heads of state marched through Paris .


OK. maybe in protocol and showing our ally a strong commitment we missed , etiquette was never our forte , but surely in a practical and factual sense , we were represented by our good old ally and friend Mr. Netanyahu , surely congress should have felt so , as on more than an occasion , Netanyahu was more honored and trusted than our own president in our own house , and that was bipartisan , so where's the wrong between friends ???  he could represent and speak on our behalf anytime , protocol matters we leave to others  and trust they will always understand .




 Again , a simple thought , commenting on some little ethical blunders by our political system , thank you all .

A FARCICAL HONEY MOON ......

   the term Judeo-Christian is a relatively newly created term  and concept , it was originally coined around the end of the second world war , to promote inter religious cooperation , against the Christian Nazi prosecution and extermination of Jewish peoples , its regular usage in language only picked up in America around the early 60s , the deliberate mixing of the two concepts , Judeo and Christian within the same framework is a deliberate act , for obvious modern times political purposes . A Christian is not a Jewish , and a Jew flatly refuses to be part of Christianity .


The Jewish God (Yahweh) and all Jewish prophets and their various books , are very different in most aspects of the Christian God , his alleged son , and later all the disciples , their  bibles , dreams and teachings . The Jewish god , the Torah and Talmudic laws and historicity , were  basically written to suit a lost people , semi nomadic , looking to establish a land of their own and establish a reign among other existing and well established reigns around them .  Roughness ,brutality and blind loyalty were essential to conquer and annihilate others , conquer their lands , properties and kingdoms .


The Jewish God was a massive brutal entity even to his own people , scared people asked Moses on regular occasions to speak to him on their behalf for fear of looking him up directly or confronting him . He ordered them to kill and slaughter all inhabited land , all kids and women  in their way ; thus creating the distinct culture of isolation , the culture of us and them , we the preferred and elevated chosen , and them the lower casts .


The Christian God throughout his teachings , and later all his disciples and their Bibles , never claimed any such practices or philosophies , on the contrary , preachings of love , forgiveness and universality were always the norms . His disciples Paul and Peter and the four Bible writers , systematically implied in every  writing the same messages of love and universality . Paul in his recreation of Jesus resurrection for our salvation , clearly meant as a message of eternal love and tolerance and salvation for all throughout times , past and future . Even though very brutal at some historic periods , the church never separated or distanced itself from the official dogma and the eternal language of love for all .


What then combine these two very different doctrines and philosophies , or religions as they like to be called ?? What makes the two Gods in any way similar or compatible ?? Nothing in my opinion , except maybe the human need and fascination for violence , brutality and dominance . human nonadaptability to eternal notions of love , tolerance and forgiveness , its fear of tolerant and permissive societies , historically a reoccurring trait in human political communities .


Protestants , originally the lower and less educated classes and casts of European peoples , their very tough lives through their forced exodus to the Americas , became with time a more fertile ground for literalism and for looking more approvingly to a forceful and even brutal God , to prophets and their teachings of brutality , hegemony and their self proclamation and self esteem . Unlike their Catholic and Eastern Orthodox counterparts . Appealing to many going through tough upbringing  around this country plus the rigid rules and disciplines governing most Protestant sects , thus explaining in part the absurd infatuation with modern Israeli wars and use of total brutal methods against their indigenous Palestinian populations .


We are systematically  witnessing the decline and death of the later more docile God , to the benefit of the resurrection of the older one , the God of the real , the God of destructive fury and revenge . The true horror though does not occur when we philosophically abandon God , but when we  become too close to him . The idea of a single Judeo-Christian tradition is a made in America myth , that many no longer regard as valid , they are very different even rival doctrines .


The modern drive to achieve universal human rights , as understood and shared today by many citizens of the civilized world and many Americans , is heavily compromised by this farcical marriage of two very opposed ways of directing and organizing our worldly political  and social lives and futures . It should be emphasized here that the two religious concepts ultimately have very different fundamental moral commitments and roles in  human lives .


It's important to mention that , I'm not here at all ,to give any judgment  as to who's better than the other , as usual my many thanks for listening .


      

APPALLING AND SICKENING MASSACRE......

Yes  " je suis Charlie "  ,  " I am Charlie ......."   and I am as appalled and hurt as anyone in his right mind  could and should be  at this senseless  act  of pure barbarism , all in the name of  religious stupid fanaticism from whatever side it comes , all in the name of the same Abrahamic Allah .




Thank you all for sharing .

NEW YEAR NEWS AND INTERESTS .......

IT is appalling  when  we see repeatedly on front pages , two paralleled windows of news , one explaining profusely about the search and rescue efforts of the last tragic Asian jetliner ,  on the other , the hardly mentioned anymore news about  the Syrian killing park , the only similarities of the two is the number 200 , the first  describes the approximate number of missing passengers , the second would be the over 200,000 , depicting the dead over a short period of time in Syria in their totally wasted killing spree .


Horrifying are the parallel pictures and stories of a woman and husband who killed each other , and the quick mention of millions of  Iraqi Christians , Yazidies , Kurds and others . Murdered , raped , displaced and hungry , with no hope of any kind for the foreseeable future .


Horrifying and appalling when we read about the U.S. and few of our heavily pressured and threatened  partners , opposing  and blindly refusing , even a modified and diluted version , of a U.N resolution  to recognize the possibility of creating an independent  Palestinian state in a foreseeable future . Ending the brutal Israeli occupation , theft of land , waters , and livelihood . And putting once and for all , an end to the worst case of ugly apartheid  policy , ever recorded in modern history .


Appalled by two windows , on the same page denouncing certain abuse of pets by some totally irresponsible individuals , and the other shorter news stating how police brutality and killings of unarmed colored  youths , has reached some of its highest levels for many years .


Outraged to see some , criticize civil marches , accusing them of disrupting and disturbing traffic patterns in cities across America , ignoring and forgetting local and world climate-change tragedies affecting literally millions upon millions if not hundreds of millions .


Shocked to read that our  God is only good to us here , and maybe only to some , forming the one or two percent of the well above lucky few , and this basically same God , turning his back and treating  so many others badly , destroying lives , hopes  and futures .


And yes I'm appalled to see and read at the top of the news page , and in ample details and lavish descriptions , that two porn actors tested positive for HIV , that the Jane Fonda  workout videos are back , and about the Kim Kardashian and Kayne surprising  real-estate  purchase , and whether Mark Zuckerberg bought himself a 100 million $ mansion .


Finally , the two very interesting stories covering our end of year news , outrageously on front pages  and in heavy prints , telling us all that the L.A , DA won't charge Cosby in his alleged  '74  sex  assaults ,  and  putting most of us in doubt as to whether  our 113th congress was historically the least productive or not .




Thanks  for  listening , wishing you all a Happy new year  with plenty of pleasant news .