KhanSerai » mental cud

Strategic Communication with the Muslim Community

serai — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:28:32 +0000

Strategic communication recently made the news because of a column Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff wrote for the Joint Forces Quarterly. His basic point was that by making it an organizing item, strategic communication has become a goal in itself, rather than being a process to enable the larger objectives. Lacking credibility and trust, and by having double standards between words and actions, leaves the US in a position where it is not effective. As he states:

The Muslim community is a subtle world we don’t fully—and don’t always attempt to—understand.

In a similar vein, Beth Noveck, the Deputy Chief Technology Officer from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy gave the keynote address at a United States Institute of Peace event “Smart Tools for Smart Power.” She highlighted the Obama administration goal of renewing the US relationship with Muslim communities, and asked the question of how serious gaming or any other technologies can be used for achieving the purpose (and several others).

There seems to be a general and open acknowledgement in the Obama administration that actions speak louder than words, and the US needs new actions (and policy) to engage with Muslim communities. There also seems to be a void that needs to be filled regarding “what should we do about it?”

How can credibility be built without resorting to propaganda and patronizing? How will a culture of respect and dialogue (that includes listening!) be established when the recent harsh memories are those of arrogance and disregard for human life? Abu Ghraib, Haditha and Guantanamo are not just news stories but the reality for many. It will be a long uphill struggle for hearts and minds requiring a commitment that stretches beyond four year presidential terms.

Blackwater (Xe) Founder Officially Charged

serai — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:42:53 +0000

The founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince was officially charged in court on Friday, Aug 29, 2009 with intent to kill .

The plaintiffs hold Erik Prince responsible for 20+ Iraqi deaths, and the defense wants the motion to be dismissed. The Judge, T.S. Ellis III has not issued a ruling yet, however as the Washington Post reports:

Judge T.S. Ellis III expressed deep skepticism about the claims. "Are you accusing Mr. Prince of saying ‘I want our boys to go out and shoot innocent civilians?’ ” he asked the attorneys."These are certainly allegations of not engaging in very nice conduct, but where are the elements that meet the elements of murder? I don’t have any doubt that you can infer malice. What you can’t infer, as far as I can tell, is intent to kill these people.”

It sounds like he has already made up his mind.

Blackwater (wiki link and official Xe website link) is the CIA contractor that was hired to assassinate al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan; and also transfer Guantanamo detainees to secret prisons in Asia for interrogations.

There is finally talk of charging Blackwater with war crimes by the Justice Department. Their subsidiaries and them are also currently charged with kidnapping, weapons smuggling, money laundering, tax evasion, child prostitution, illegal drug use and destruction of evidence in the Virginia Eastern Federal District Court under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

US Postal System Crisis

serai — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:00:35 +0000

Did you know that the US Postal Service (USPS) is the second largest civilian employer in the country, after Wal-mart? It has also been running in the red and after cutting 25,000 jobs earlier this year it is offering to pay some 30,000 additional workers to leave.

Facing a $2.6 billion loss in the last quarter (projected to be $7billion by the end of the year), the USPS has been badly hit by the recession. Not only has the volume of regular mail gone down as more electronic options abound (email and electronic bill paying systems), the source of 25% of its revenue in the past has drastically been reduced: JUNK MAIL or as it is euphemistically called “standard mail”!! As all retailers have been hit by dwindling revenue streams they have been forced to cut marketing budgets, and make smarter choices about what fliers/catalogs that need to be sent, and to whom.

Trying to cut costs, USPS has also selected 677 post offices to be closed or merged, mail routes are changing and mail boxes are being reduced. Congress is holding hearings to review the changes that USPS is proposing, including changing their delivery schedule to 5 days a week (instead of the current 6).

On the positive side, at least there are no strikes yet as are being seen in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland protesting similar cost-cutting actions.

We are reaching a stage where the concept of mail needs to be re-examined and revamped to better meet the needs of today’s technology-savvy consumers.

Finally, a Check on the CIA!

serai — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:41:00 +0000

The controversial CIA program for assassinating al-Qaeda leaders using Blackwater as a contractor is becoming an ever-increasing political problem for the CIA as more information gets revealed. Congress was not informed about the program’s existence when it was formed in 2004. The new CIA Director Leon Panetta (Obama’s appointee) cancelled the program this summer when he found out about it and then informed Congress. The CIA claims that it was in the planning stages only; since then it seems that it was past the planning stages, though it was not successful in it’s seven years.

Congress has launched an investigation into the matter and most importantly the mood is changing on the Hill regarding illegal activity by the CIA. The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration is currently evaluating if they should release:

newly declassified portions of a 2004 CIA report that questions the legality and effectiveness of the agency’s harsh interrogations at secret prisons. Additionally, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. may order a probe of possible criminal actions by CIA officers and contractors during those interrogations.

It is about time the legislative and judicial branches of the government actually started acting based on their mandates rather than giving a carte blanche to the executive branch as they did for the past 8 years under Bush. The separation of the various government branches is to ensure checks and balances within the system; however the more we find out about the inner working of the past administration, the more we realize that the judicial & legislative branch were made irrelevant by the ever-expanding power of the executive branch.

America needs to re-establish the rule of law for itself, and not just expect it from other countries. People in glass houses should not throw stones!

ObamaCare vs MackayCare

serai — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:19:35 +0000

Health care reform is on the minds of everyone today (according to Gallup polls it is increasingly considered the most important issue) but there are mixed opinions on it.

Ignoring Sarah Palin’s attention-seeking inflammatory hate-mongering (no version of the bill includes death panels for grandpa or evil directed at Down syndrome babies), there are only a few THOUGHTFUL/informed public naysayers about the plan as a whole. John Mackay, CEO of Whole Foods is one. He recently wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal outlining “The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare.” Two days later President Obama published an op-ed in the New York Times defending his plan.

The response to Mackay’s op-ed has been astounding with several liberal-left-wingers-who-often-frequent-Whole Foods-stores vowing to boycott the company! There are anti-Whole Foods Facebook groups that actually have five time as many members (last count at 11pm, Aug 16 2009 was 10,003) than the pro-Whole Foods Facebook group (last count at 11pm, Aug 16 2009 was 1,944).

Fundamentally, Obama is pushing for maximizing the numbers of people who are insured, reducing costs and promoting a healthier lifestyle to reduce healthcare costs (more info on the ACTUAL reform options on this site). Mackay thinks that costs must be cut, healthcare is not a universal right that must be provided for all & that people should be more responsible about their health, not just their healthcare. So what exactly is MackayCare vs ObamaCare?

Objective	ObamaCare	MackayCare
Reduce costs for employers	Cut subsidies for insurance companies Cut out inefficiency & waste in Medicare and Medicaid	Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts
Reduce costs for individuals	Channel money towards reducing prescription drug costs Force insurance companies to cover routine checks and preventative tests	Equalize the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits Revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren’t covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program
Promote competition	Create a public health alternative. Obama is now backing away from this as and might move towards non-profit co-ops	Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines
Reduce costs for insurance companies		Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year
Create awareness		Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost
Prevent Medicare bankruptcy	Enact Medicare reform	Enact Medicare reform
Maximize numbers of people insured and ensure that people will not be refused or discriminated against	Ensure that people can have insurance whether they are employed or not, or have pre-existing conditions	This is something that Mackay does not consider to be a right

Both sides have some valid points and a combination of both might be a good idea for America.

Irony in Politics: John Yettaw is Released

serai — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 04:48:25 +0000

Senator Jim Webb of Virginia went to Myanmar (not officially representing the US) and secured the release of John Yettaw- the man who was sentenced to 7 years for violating Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest terms.

The irony is that Aung San Suu Kyi has not been released, but the American who swam across a lake to tell Suu Kyi that he had a dream she was being assassinated (he actually testified to this during his trial) is the one who will get off scot free.

Senator Webb also met with General Than Shwe (head of the military junta) and with Suu Kyi. Clearly it is a better policy to engage Mynamar rather than isolate them; it is unfortunate however that it has taken so long for the US administration to realize that they will have more influence if they build ties.

District 9

serai — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 03:57:37 +0000

Directed by South African Neill Blomkamp, District 9 is unlike any sci-fi alien movie you will have seen before. The storyline and portrayal of characters in tough situations is really done well, though of course there are moments of cheesy action and shoot outs.

The film depicts life in slums, gangs, poverty, apartheid and corporate greed in very realistic terms. The situations portrayed through fiction have happened in the past and some continue to happen today; apartheid in South Africa, slums in Africa, South America and Asia, refugee camps in Sudan and Palestine, gang wars and arms dealers of Central America and Africa, and corporate villains like Blackwater (now called Xe and infamous for its atrocities in Iraq) all come to mind. It’s very much fiction but very much part of our current reality too.

Without giving the plot away or making it sound more dramatic than it is, this is a movie that you should definitely watch, with a thinking mind, even if you do not believe in aliens or like alien sci-fi movies.

The movie has received great reviews from critics and viewers alike. Although there were no compelling previews, the film’s viral marketing campaigns and supporting “fictional” artifacts created in real life (like the MNU website) are a wonderful example of using Web 2.0 methods.

Should Liberty be the Price of Safety in Saudi Arabia?

serai — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:11:35 +0000

Saudi Arabia takes national security very seriously. In 2003, after Al-Qaeda affiliates launched three successful attacks on expatriate compounds and several failed ones on Saudi government facilities, the country cracked down very hard on militants, suspected militants, political activists, dissidents, supporters and basically anyone it wanted to.

The Human Rights Watch recently issued a report claiming that 9000 people were detained, of which 2000-4000 are still in jail. Held without trial, sent to rehabilitation camps and in a few cases actually charged and tried in secret, the process has been mostly opaque and violated both Saudi law and also international law. 991 people had been indicted by October 2008 and a further 323 by July 2009. Sentences ranged from a few months to 30 years for those that were tried.

What is known through anecdotes is that soon after the 2003 attacks there were huge crackdowns on faculty at various Islamic universities in the Kingdom. Professors and students disappeared and the curriculum/language has changed to include “moderation”. Officially, “there is no place for extremism in Islamic University.” Additionally, all imams in mosques around the country have to be Saudi and approved by the government; they are monitored to ensure that they are not teaching hatred (some 3200 have been removed over the past 5 years).

Do national security concerns give nations the right to violate human rights? Clearly Saudi Arabia and USA are birds of a feather in this regard (let us not forget Guantanamo Bay). It is interesting that the American founding fathers certainly did not think so:

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, "Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor", November 11, 1755

Myanmar Suu Kyi Verdict Announced

serai — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:51:49 +0000

The Than Shwe junta announced it’s verdict against Aung San Suu Kyi today- she has been sentenced to another 18 months of house arrest. Better than the 3 years jail sentence that was originally planned, it is still more than she deserves. The sentence will ensure that she is unable to participate in the May 2010 elections that she would probably have won.

The international community is up in arms over the verdict and the UN is reviewing a condemnation statement. International condemnation has not made any difference to Myanmar in the past; it is unlikely that much will change now. A poor nation with no major resources to offer to the world, no country cares enough about human rights to actually take more forceful action against Myanmar. Indeed not every country is even willing to openly condemn the sham trial- China and India have noticeably stayed silent on the issue.

The international political arena is full of double standards and inconvenient facts. Think of how many political prisoners exist in countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel- now think how much international condemnation or press coverage they are receiving.

In case you were wondering what happened to John Yettaw, the man who caused Suu Kyi to end up in this situation, he has received a seven year prison sentence which includes four years of hard labor.

Irresponsible Citizen Journalism: Hamas Child Brides

serai — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:08:11 +0000

Hamas is the controversial Palestinian political party with a military and social arm that legitimately won elections in 2006 (defeating Fatah) and is also considered a terrorist organization by the US, the EU, Canada, Japan and Israel.

A Hamas sponsored matchmaking agency recently sponsored a mass wedding for 450 couples living in one of the Gaza refugee camps (including several visually impaired individuals). They covered the cost of the reception and also provided monetary gifts for all the couples. As is the custom of the area, kids attending the wedding celebration of their relatives dressed up in white and black to match the bride and groom outfits (this custom is present in some Asian cultures as well). It is similar to children ring bearers or flower girls in Western weddings.

So what did the inflammatory desktop blogosphere do? They took screen shots from videos on youtube (like this) and created a story about Hamas sponsoring a mass wedding for child brides (see this al-Jazeera one too). Hamas clarified their position of course however it raises a huge question about irresponsible citizen journalism.

Whether one hates Hamas or not, it is irresponsible to propagate false stories! There are plenty of unsavory TRUE stories about Hamas sponsored activities that violate all sorts of norms- so why lose credibility and post nonsense? An eye-witness account from a journalist that actually attended the event is linked here and worth reading.