Uroplatus phantasticus and Chlamydosaurus kingii
Owen Jones has written a pretty good article in the Guardian today about Saudi Arabia exposing the BS us a Western morality: just check the colour of the money?
The West is starting WW3 with Russia because it was said they 'annexed' Crimea, where no one died, no shots were fired, no armies marched, no tanks rolled, and no one resisted. The Ukrainians seem to be quite happy to be part of Russia and not part of civil war torn Ukraine, but the Western press inform us that the Crimeans are scared to protest in case the Russia secret police shoot them. But when hundred of thousands of people, including women and children, die in Yemen, they're not too fussed.
Saudi Arabia is a tyranny that threatens all of us. It was central to the rise of the Taliban, al-Qaida and Isis. It subjects women to monstrous oppression, maintains the death penalty for gay people and “witches”, bans all political parties and free media, and uses British and US weapons to butcher civilians in Yemen. Britain’s alliance with the House of Saud exposes our ruling elite’s talk of “human rights” abroad as a crock of lies. Foreign regimes are arranged into a hierarchy of villains; but the order is not decided on the basis of how villainous they are, rather how hostile they are deemed to be to western interests. There are many reasons why our country’s crumbling social order has lost any legitimacy. This blood-soaked pact is as striking as any.
Take our political elite. When he was prime minister, Tony Blair piled pressure on the attorney general to end a massive corruption scandal involving a Saudi arms deal. Since the Saudi-led onslaught on Yemen began, the British government has licensed £4.7bn of arms exports. British military advisers have even worked in Saudi war rooms. Germany has now halted arms exports to the Saudi regime; but even if more western bombs are dropped on school buses, there is no chance the Tory government will follow the German lead.
The Saudi regime spends hundreds of thousands on British MPs – mostly Tory, but some Labour: from foreign trips to gifts. On one such trip, in April this year, Labour’s Paul Williams cooed that his “previous notions have been blown out of the water”; that he had “seen a modern, progressive Saudi Arabia that has totally changed my view of this country”. His Saudi funders must have been delighted: the rate of beheadings has doubled under the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman; women’s rights activists and the country’s most prominent dissident have been arrested; and thousands have been butchered by the Saudis in Yemen. Shipping over gullible British parliamentarians on stage-managed trips to project a false image of reform is a good investment. Williams protests that he can see “the absolutely atrocious things the regime does”, but stresses the “economic and social reforms taking place”, unable to accept that he was used.
The GuardianBritain has sold its soul to the House of Saud. Shame on us
That’s quite an op-ed piece, coming from the Guardian, which is normally pro-war.
ReplyDelete“But when hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children, die in Yemen, they're not too fussed.”
The hypocrisy over this Khashoggi affair is nauseating. Tears are shed for a former insider to the Saudi regime who cheered for the attack on Libya and Syria (and probably Yemen). Meanwhile no tears are shed for the destruction of Yemen.
“Saudi Arabia subjects women to monstrous oppression, and maintains the death penalty for gay people and “witches.”
Where are all the feminists and “gay rights” people on this? Where is the talk about “Saudi male privilege”? Homosexuals in the UK and USA have all kinds of special rights and special protections, yet they scream that their own society is “homophobic.” Meanwhile the Saudis murder them.
“Britain’s alliance with the House of Saud exposes our ruling elite’s talk of ‘human rights’ abroad as a crock of lies.”
This madness continues because British and American peasants spend all their time attacking each other as “Nazis” and “Commies.”
“Shipping over gullible British parliamentarians on stage-managed trips to project a false image of reform is a good investment.”
Israel does this too. Israelis offer all-expense-paid trips to politicians and police chiefs so the latter can marvel at the wonders of Ziostan and the Gaza Death Camp.
Incidentally, we might blame politicians for all this, but what about the countless people who work for weapons makers, and thereby base their living on war? All of them are equally guilty.
Kaivey, I finally watched the videos you posted last week, one with Prof. Richard Warren. Excellent. Then man really knows banking.
ReplyDeleteYes, GLH, I really like Prof. Richard Werner, even if he gets some stick here. I like his gentle, compassionate nature.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone here should watch the film about the city of London which exposes that it is nothing but a crime syndicate. It's probably the best video I have ever put out here, but I don't think I plugged it enough.
The Spiders Web - Britain's Second Empire
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NqnAp7U9vJU
Yes, Konrad, I was so pleased with the Owen Jones article. He has done his fair share of Russia bashing in the past so I thought he had gone over to the other side - another leftie turned into a neoliberal by the body snatchers, I thought, especially when he turned against Corbyn at one point. But when Corbyn surged in the polls he came back onboard.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, his article got through the Guardian pro war bias because he wrote it so carefully. He seems to have got better over the last year.
"Saudi Arabia is a tyranny that threatens all of us." I'm shocked. Isn't that "Islamoiphobic"? Won't the European Court of Human Rights which recently said it's illgal to say Mohammed was a phedophile (which he was) have Owen Jones arrested?
ReplyDeleteYours confused.