Independent Progressive Thought

Just so I don't go insane, I have to look at other stuff and I find art both fascinating and inspiring. Inspiring at a personal level, in the sense of wanting to be a better person, better lover and just better, period. Fascinating because everytime you see interesting art, there is a sense of wonderment that engulfs you. It is a wonderment that is sometimes intellectual but more often curious and emotional.

Here is a comment on where to find Islamic Art in North America. I have not seen these collections but I bet they are so meticulously put together, they are probably among the best in the world. I found this on the LATimes site while reading the editorials. This should in no way be construed as advocacy of religion or Islam, but rather of the art in question. Adding the Madina trove to LACMA's existing 1,000-piece Islamic art collection made the museum the third best place to see Islamic art in the United States, ahead of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and many encyclopedic museums but far behind the Met in New York and the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. The Met has 7,000 works of ancient Near Eastern art and 12,000 pieces of Islamic art. The Freer and Sackler have a smaller collection, but it contains a higher percentage of masterpieces than the Met's holding, Komaroff says.

Here is a list of some interesing works.

Eagle Headed Deity - Gypseous alabaster is believed to date from 870 BC. (LACMA)

Mongol Archer on Horseback - Ink and gold on paper, the work dates from Iran early in the 15th century. (LACMA)

Artistic sensibility - Koran stand, of carved and inlaid wood, was made by Hasan ibn Sulaiman al-Isfahani in Iran or Central Asia, in AD 761. (LACMA)

Star tile - Painted and over-glazed, the star is from Iran and probably was made by Takhi-i Sulaiman in the 1270s. (LACMA)

posted by Nashib @ 11:54 PM

All this talk about supporting your family and friends in time of need is really disingenious. Well, if you knew your family or friends were about to commit murder would you really support them and participate in it. I would hope the most sensible course of action would be to try and stop them and then to address the issue with some arbitration. Blindly supporting this violent murder is what the intellectually null and morally bankrupt Canadian Alliance is proposing. This should not really come as much of a surprise since this is the party which has ample bigotry to offer against minorities of all types including, but not limited to immigrants and homosexuals.

posted by Nashib @ 11:23 PM

Getting back onto the topic of American complicity. I just remembered an article on CommonDreams.org last night, by Naomi Klein, that appeared in the Thursday Globe and Mail. Canada and Mexico may seem expendable on their own, but combined? That's a different story. Together, they represent 36 per cent of America's export market. We supply the U.S. with 36 per cent of its net energy imports and 26 per cent of its net oil imports. So this is what I say to those Canadians that would like to support this war, not because they believe it is just or moral but due to the fact that the lack the courage to face economic fallout, if any, from our lack of support of the US action. Where is your hardy northern, independent and free spirit? Have you no heart? Do you really wish to support and continue to work in and industry that needs to plunder peoples and cultures, families and lives ? Do you not think that after an initial shock which would be grave, we would learn to trade with other partners and work in different industries. And what of the fact, that we would all learn to live with a little less for a while? It is surely a most worthy spiritual journey that we would undertake thanks to our American friends. Until we have the vision and the imagination as a people to find a path which will want other nations and peoples to be our closest and most trusted partners.

posted by Nashib @ 11:16 PM

It seems I am surrounded by geniuses. No seriously, some of my friends have been so on in guessing what antics the Americans are going to be using and spotting them when they are being used. So I am not just paranoid, they really are propaganising in a way that I really had put past any civilised group. Then again we are talking about an army charged with killing as many as it takes for as long as it takes for the grand imperium.

So my friend Jerry said we should really consider the ratio of humanitarian aid to bombs dropped. This here is the methodology. They are sending 200 tons of aid. They have dropped 1,000 tons of bombs, yielding a shameful ratio of 1:5. Has anyone considered that stopping the bombing might be the most desirable form of humanitarian aid.

Also Saharsha indicated about a week ago that the Americans were going to start calling the Iraqi army 'terrorists'. Sure enough this morning General Brooks was referring to them as "terrorist-like death squads". The US Forces are of course 'angel like liberators', not to be confused with the former.

Also this morning General Brooks said that he could name the countries supporting the 'Allied' effort because they did not want it. So they are basically like a bunch of scumbag criminals getting rich of a heist and so they want not to be known. What happened to honesty and transparency and morality ?

posted by Nashib @ 1:13 PM

You know what is irritating about the attitude of many canadians ? That they believe that they are so much better than Americans ! And I am a damn Canadian. Reported in The Globe and Mail today, Thanks to a tax loophole, corporate crime does pay - By DAVID BOYD, Friday, March 28, 2003 - Page A17 , is this tax loophole where businesses can deduct fines as regular expenses !!! Not only is this ridiculous but it explicitly violates the spirit of the law which was intented to punish these corporations.

Now that I am ranting about Canadians; they also think that they are more environmentally aware than the Americans which may be somewhat true at a personal level. However, most states have stiffer environmental regulations than Canada. Of course with Bushies everywhere in the administration, I am sure they are bound to undo this sooner than later.

And about Canadian complicity in the war, most Canadians believe that there is none. However, next to the US, UK and Australia, Canada has the largest commitment in terms of troops and equipment. Not that it amounts to much in the fearsome American arsenal. However, Spain and Italy and all those other third rate Eastern European and other little nations have NO COMMITMENTS !!! Interesting, eh ! Well speaking of Eastern Europe, the US does wield hefty club over them as indicate by Scott Ritter. Here is an excerpt from an
article from the Cornell Daily Sun on Common Dreams.org. "Additionally, the coalition is comprised of many Eastern European nations, which according to Ritter joined because the U.S. threatened to veto their application to NATO." Canada rightly prides itself as an internationalist since it has led many interesting human security projects (as opposed to just state security). However, all this is under fire. Check out
The great Canadian divide - By ANDREW MACK and OLIVER ROHLFS, Friday, March 28, 2003 - Page A19

posted by Nashib @ 11:43 AM

You know what the real tragedy of war is. It is all the innocent people that are affected and we all know that there are enough of those.

Iraq Peace Team: Al Kindi Hospital

This is exactly why you should oppose the war. Yes, I am talking about YOU !

posted by Nashib @ 5:30 PM

Taken from the link

American hawks' plan sounds chilling today, VINAY MENON; these paragraphs (12, 13 and 14) are quite scary.

Tonight, a commercial-free edition of the fifth estate (CBC, 9 p.m.) looks at the Iraq conflict and deftly explores the PNAC story. In one 2000 paper entitled "Rebuilding America's Defences", PNAC authors wrote that "the process of transformation" requires "some catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor."

A year later, 9/11 entered the popular lexicon and a "War on Terrorism" was launched. But, as it turns out, plans for military action in the Middle East have been incubating for years. So what is going on right now? Is this war a pretext for a larger objective? And what comes next? Iran, Syria, Lebanon or North Korea? Then what?

The implications are so profound it's almost absurd. And yet the American cable news stations have generally stayed clear of this, focusing instead on a tick-tock narrative while relying upon a visual short-hand to fill in the rest.

You really have to read the rest of this article. It asks some very good questions of the mainstream media. Now it shouldn't be surprising that that when corporations that stand to gain from the war have ownership of media that is so far reaching, that all criticism is either stifled or defanged.

Check out GE's far reaching media ownership for one example.

GE Media Ownership

What is equally disturbing is the corporations that have profited immensely from this madness. I can't find the link on netscape.com but there was one off the main page called 'War Stocks' and I doubt they too it off because people complained ... Anyway they showed that the stocks are down a few percent since the war started. OK.
But they are up from 50-100% from their 52 week lows !!! Disgusting that people actually want to invest in these damn things.

posted by Nashib @ 5:03 PM

URL for warmongers

posted by Nashib @ 4:02 PM

I know that the US has a large educated population but sometimes I really wonder if all that does any good when the government itself is involved in creating boogeymen for everyone to be terrified of.

I mean I do expect corporations to scare you into buying antibacterial soaps and creams and lotions, but the government itself !!


US Government's Orwellian Fearmongering Site


However, it is more than just double speak as evidenced by these colourful interpretations of the previous site.


Here is one spoof of it.
Thanks. Saharsha.


Here is another on yayhooray.com
Thanks AL.

The fact that US itelligence services like the CIA believe that the threat of biological or nuclear attack is unlikely is a testament to the excellent setup of various agencies in the US (note I am not vouching for the morality or ethics of the CIA). Bwahaaha !!!!! I'm killing myself !! CIA, ethics, morality !! Help me !! I'm dyin' here. Ooof. Getting back on track. If these and other intelligence agencies believe it is unlikely, then is it not purely fearmongering based on a very remote possibility.

posted by Nashib @ 3:44 PM

Another mad day of ridiculous propaganda. Interesting note from yesterday that most of the American news outlets had not reported on the bomb in the market, but the Canadian and English news sources had reported the 15 civilians killed.

Speaking of dead civilians check out
Iraq Body Count

Acting as consultant to this website is Marc Herbold who was the professor from NH who was among the first to do an accurate and systematic tally of Afghan civilians killed by the anti-Taliban operation.

posted by Nashib @ 3:22 PM

The attack against Iraq is now well on its way. The shocking and awful daily terrorization of the Iraqi people goes on. There is no doubt that the US and British forces will defeat the Iraqi government, and occupy Iraq, at a tremendous human cost to the Iraqi people. There will also be a cost to be paid by the Americans in terms of how the rest of the world views the world’s most powerful country.

For most people in the world, this would be the end of it. The citizens of those countries that waged this war did not suffer the indignity of foreign occupiers, the horror of mangled bodies, the daily bombarding of their cities. They did not have to comfort their children when they held on to their parents. They did not have to explain to them why their sisters, bothers, mothers or fathers had to die in the name of their liberation and the security of some far away country. The citizens of the United States did not have to pay anything, suffer in anyway, except perhaps the interruptions of their regular television programming and some less than well off Americans.

But for the people of Iraq it has only begun. It is them that have to pick up the broken lives of children, who have been maimed for the rest of their lives, who have had their parents killed before their eyes, who have suffered 12 years of devastating sanctions.

We must hold Mr Bush and Mr. Blair to their word. Will they do as promised and bring democracy to Iraq? Would they just install a puppet that will betray the people of Iraq again? Does the US really want a democracy in Iraq with all its implications? Would they accept policies that may not be palatable to Washington’s oil interests? Are they, as many people strongly believe interested in controlling the flow of oil to the world and ensuring their global economic and military dominance? Perhaps, after all of this, they would simply move on to the next problem like they have done in Afghanistan. Only time will tell.

The Iraqi people, those who oppose the war and those who hope that the fall of President Hussein would bring a better life for their people must be united. They must not fight amongst themselves, Sunni against Shia, Kurd against Arab, Moslem against Christian. They have experienced liberators before. Rather than liberation, they have brought more pain and suffering. There is no reason to believe that this time it would be different.

By Saharsha.

posted by Nashib @ 4:23 PM

Mr. Bush does the Geneva convention really interest you ? How about some perspective. I know you have to have it explained, but if you can read, check this out.

Let's talk Geneva Convention ..

Interesting don't you think that the US administration is invoking the Geneva convention when they have unilaterally withdrawn from multiple international treaties. The Kyoto Protocol, the ABM treaty with Russia are just a couple of exmaples. They are also in violation of some treaty about the militarisation of space with their missile defence program. From an article in the Washington Post, "The White House has treated the global warming accords, the International Criminal Court, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the U.N. Charter with the same respect that the German Foreign Ministry accorded its pledge of nonaggression to Belgium in 1914. "

posted by Nashib @ 2:57 PM