“We Europeans must never forget that we created the Middle East conflict,” says Timothy Garton Ash in The Guardian. “Justified criticism of Israeli policy needs to be informed by a sense of our own historical responsibility. “When and where did this war begin? Shortly after 9am local time on Wednesday July 12, when Hizbullah militants seized Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev – Israeli reservists on the last day of their tour of duty – in a cross-border raid into...

American pizza arrived in 1905. That’s when Gennaro Lombardi received the first license in New York City to run a pizzeria at 531/2 Spring Street. And since then the American appetite has definitely improved! Let us take a look at other flavours in life… As the U.S. Administration, and a large number of vocal Americans (including bloggers) appear to take an aggressive and a strident stance in domestic and world affairs, it is not a bad idea to see oneself in a mirror occasionally. Let’s...

As thousands of refugees move out of Lebanon, I am reminded of a Lebanese family that left its home for the United States of America more than 100 years ago to escape the tyranny of the Ottoman authorities. At the time, the second largest Lebanese-American community was in Boston’s South End, so the Gibrans decided to settle there in 1895. Because boy Khalil Gibran had no formal schooling in Lebanon, he was placed in a special class for immigrants to learn English. Gibran’s English...

Please don’t! Just sleep alone if you care for your (and the world’s)health, peace, tranquility and propserity. “IF YOU have ever thought you were stupid to sleep with someone, consider this…Sharing your bed could actually make you stupid if you are a man – at least temporarily,” say Gerhard Kloesch and colleagues from the University of Vienna, Austria. “Even without having sex, bed sharing disturbs sleep quality, The team recruited eight unmarried, childless...

Just my rambling thoughts on the statements made by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan following the recent Mumbai blasts,. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Pakistan must prevent militants from launching attacks across the border, after last week’s train blasts in Mumbai. “There has to be a firm commitment that Pakistani territory is not used to support terrorist acts directed against our country,” Singh said aboard his...

The Shi’ite-dominated regions of southern Lebanon and south Beirut have been heavily bombed by Israeli jets. On Thursday afternoon, VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough joined other journalists on a tour of one demolished southern suburb, led by the spokesman from Hezbollah. “All around us were piles of rubble where buildings used to be, now crushed beyond recognition. Black smoke was still rising from some of the sites, and the air was thick with the acrid odor of explosives. “Some...

Letizia Alterno pays homage in The Guardian to a legendary Indian author who died in his home in Austin, Texas, recently…thousands of miles away from his ancestral home in southern India. Raja Rao, 97 (born November 8, 1908; died July 8, 2006), was one of the three founding fathers of Indian English writing. The other two in this “holy trinity” were Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan. “In 1929, the promising young Indian writer Raja Rao received an invitation to study at Montpellier...

Indian bloggers are planning to move the Supreme Court against the government’s move to jam blog sites in the wake of the July 11 Mumbai blasts on suspicion that terrorists might be using them to exchange messages, reports the Hindustan Times. “We believe it is undemocratic and against the right to freedom of expression. Though the action is undemocratic and unconstitutional, we will use constitutional means to fight it,” Kajal Basu, a web journalist, said Wednesday. The journalist...

Here are two views on the Israeli military action at Lebanon. The first appeared in a leading newspaper of India, The Hindustan Times, and the other in the Beirut-based newspaper, The Daily Star. David Danieli, the author of the article in the Hindustan Times, is Ambassador of Israel to India. This is what he wrote: “Since Wednesday, July 12, 2006, 1,500 rockets have landed in Israel across its entire northern sector, killing and wounding many civilians in towns and villages, including the...

(click on photo to enlarge) If this is what is going to happen to the United Nations’ forces in Lebanon (pl read below), then I am afraid its presence in Iraq would be of no use . However, I continue to believe that diplomacy based on consensus is more likely to succesd than a solo power performance in the world’s tough and complex regions. We need to improve the U.N. functioning so that its forces become effective – in this the U.S. and the U.K. have a major role to play. So...

Cherokee Wisdom Two Wolves One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. “One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment,inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. “The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope,serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence,empathy, generosity, truth, compassion...

The mainstream media’s alarming reports about the Civil War in Iraq seem to be the “last and final” call for the U.S. and the U.K. to prepare an emergency exit strategy. What is happening in Iraq now had been predicted right at the beginning when the myopic foreign intervention began in that cursed country. Even CIA had in confidential notes clearly stated the possibility of Civil War in Iraq. If there is a delay in exiting the repercussions would be disastrous. Remember, we...

As sectarian violence soars, many Sunni Arab political and religious leaders once staunchly opposed to the American presence here are now saying they need American troops to protect them from the rampages of Shiite militias and Shiite-run government forces, says NYT.

March of Folly By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: July 17, 2006 NYT Since those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it — and since the cast of characters making pronouncements on the crisis in the Middle East is very much the same as it was three or four years ago — it seems like a good idea to travel down memory lane. Here’s what they said and when they said it: “The greatest thing to come out of [invading Iraq] for the world economy … would be $20 a barrel...

(click on image to enlarge) A glimpse into the Mumbai’s dramatic fight back to normalcy. On Wednesday, a journalist from the BBC’s London office called up Western Railway’s Chief Public Relation Officer Pranay Prabhakar and asked, “How did you restore your railway in four hours (after seven blasts on seven trains). Last year, when there were two blasts in London, it took us three days to resume train services.” Says The Dawn of Pakistan: “Mumbai’s legendary...

Imagine the Police taking such an action in the USA or India??? This can happen only in Britain (maybe at times in Japan!) Lord Levy, the Labour Party’s chief fundraiser, was arrested yesterday by police investigating the “cash for peerages” scandal – a humiliating blow for Tony Blair, reports The Independent. “Scotland Yard’s Specialist Crime Directorate, led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates, has not ruled out interviewing Mr Blair. It has seized...

(click on photo to enlarge – courtesy The Project Gutenberg EBook) Like Joe, I am also travelling…but in Western India on a Press Institute of India and World Bank assignment for journalists. However, I have some spare time so could not resist the temptation of responding to Rep. John Murtha’s statement, considered by some as “provocative”. The Pennsylvania Democrat said of the Haditha incident: “The tremendous pressure and the redeployment (of soldiers/Marines)...

Here are two moving and heart-warming write-ups I came across during the past two days following Mumbai (India) killer explosions. These ‘letters’ deserve our attention for the simple reason that they are so different from the cries emerging thousands of miles away wanting ‘vendetta’, ‘eye for an eye’, etc, from people (including bloggers) who claim they are the most ‘sane and civilized’ persons. The link to the first ‘letter’ was sent...

Letters written by Albert Einstein to his family have shed light on the scientist’s personal life, including a string of extramarital affairs. says the BBC. The German-born scientist travelled extensively and wrote hundreds of letters to his family, unsealed by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Monday. The letters shed new light on the personal life of one of the 20th century’s greatest intellects. The more than 3,500 pages of correspondence were written between 1912 and 1955, the...

Says Andrew J. Bacevich in the Washington Post: “In Iraq, lives differ in value — and so do deaths. In this disparity lies an important reason why the United States has botched this war.” Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University. “Last November in Haditha , a squad of Marines, outraged at the loss of a comrade, is said to have run amok, avenging his death by killing two dozen innocent bystanders. “And in March, U.S. soldiers...

Four people have appeared in court to be arraigned with the murder in Washington of Alan Senitt, a young Jewish activist from London widely tipped to go on to a high-flying political career, says the Independent. “Even though Washington has grown inured to violent crime – mostly drug-related but which has not spared even rich enclaves like Georgetown – the murder of Mr Senitt has come as a particular shock. “Mr Senitt had twice been elected head of the Union of Jewish students,...

In continuation of the post Shia Militias Slaughter Women And Children, my attention has been drawn to today’s top story about Saddam Hussein’s trial. “The last phase of the turbulent trial of Saddam Hussein on charges of crimes against humanity resumed on Monday with a boycott by the deposed Iraqi leader and key members of the defence team. “The Iraqi high tribunal, which is in charge of trying Saddam and his seven former cohorts, said it would continue to hear the defence’s...

A spokeswoman for the California governor, Margita Thompson, said Mr Arnold Schwarzenegger passed both a written and a riding test and got the required permit on Monday, nearly six months after he crashed one of his Harleys into an S.U.V. pulling out of a driveway while riding near his Los Angeles home with his 12-year-old son in a sidecar. But Ms. Thompson said Mr. Schwarzenegger, who broke six ribs in an accident years earlier, had not ridden since the January crash. She said he had been too busy...

“What’s gone wrong with America’s image and why – reprise 2006″. For more food for thought on this subject there is lot to chew on in WhirledView. Some excerpts:… “An America that does not understand – and makes little effort to understand – why it has become so unpopular abroad is almost certain to find itself both disliked and ineffective in many parts of the world. “The W administration response? Convene a new-old committee to draw...

A Leader in the British newspaper Observer stands out in sharp contrast to the article I had mentioned earlier in this blog from The Times of London.