Deep Intrigue on the Subcontinent

This post could also have been called 'Israel further endangers the world,' which would have been entirely fitting, except it doesn't grab one's imagination in quite the same way that 'intrigue' does. And this stuff is very intriguing, albeit scary and even a bit bizarre. What i'm referring to is Israel's relationship with right-wing Hindus and its increasing influence (read: profiteering) in India's 'security operations'. Came across this story in the UAE press about a 'radical Hindu group', Abhinav Bharat, best known for conducting a series of bombings last year in Maharashtra. The report claims that this relatively small group of fascists - let's be honest here - has been preparing to set up a shadow government based - you guessed it - in Tel Aviv. Helping a group that uses extreme violence to cleanse India of its muslims seems like an obvious step for Isreal. They could surficially justify it as the best way to assist Washington in rounding up all the genetically bad guys, since Israelis in military uniform io Pakistani soil would definitely not go over very well; on the periphery of the al-Qaeda-Taliban Wilderness Reserve, build up a strong Hindu buffer and make it that much harder for India and Iran to sustain progressive relations. Makes perfect sense, right? Israel aids fascist terrorists who have as their objective the elimination of supposedly fascist terrorists.

A couple of years ago, i came across mention of how Israelis had sold India on the need to construct a barrier between Jammu and Kashmir. Not only did they generously promote the idea (using their monstrosity in the Palestinian Territories as a model for what's possible), they also offered to help them build it, which was oh so kind and of course, very, very profitable. Researching this again, i learn that in fact, India followed Isreal's lead in unilaterally deciding where the border lies; in both cases, doing this violates international law but as we have learned, when it comes to fighting terrorism the law gets pretty simple, i.e. 'whatever we decide'. The law of the jungle has become the law of the desert; be careful what you wish for, chides a grinning Osama bin Laden. And this isn't the only thing that's familiar. According to a NY Times story from 2004:

In places, the fence has created divisions within a division. Some farmers have been separated from their grazing lands, and a few houses and hamlets that have been in Indian-held Kashmir since 1947 are now outside it because the fence could not be built around them without crossing into Pakistani territory. There are gates for cattle and people, with proper identification, to cross back into India.

It's easy to toss out cynical rhetoric about this, but what it means in very real terms is that Israel has set up yet another system in which people are daily subjected to humiliation and true hardship in the interests of financial and political greed. This is not occurring in an otherwise peaceful, idyllic setting. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir in the past decade or so, there's been a huge amount of suffering and now there is a wall. Indian commanders claim that successful attacks have decreased, but it's understood there still need to be some attacks, otherwise people will start to question whether the fence is really needed and maybe the time is right to make a political settlement.

People who want to come and are determined to come, they will come," said Umar Farooq, a political leader in Indian-held Kashmir who opposes Indian rule. "They have routes and maps, and they will use them." "It's a waste of money,'' he said, adding that it was better to pursue a political settlement. With the fence, he said, the Indians are "trying to sort of legitimize their claim day by day" to Kashmir.

This sure sounds like a day in the West Bank to me. Now here's where it gets both familiar and creepy. The NY Times story about Abhinav Bharat, which details the history of their prosecution for the Maharashta attacks, includes this update on the status of the case against them:

The investigations into the blasts were dealt a blow after the death in the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November of Hemant Karkare, who was head of Mumbai’s antiterrorist squad. Many people, including a federal minority affairs minister, demanded an inquiry in to the circumstances that led to Karkare’s death, alleging a right-wing Hindu group might have been behind it.

The last time the head of a terrorist unit was killed, it happened in NYC on 'that date' - you, know, the one that will be carved into Rudolph Giuliani's tombstone. But think about it, ok? India is now Israel's third largest customer in the arms market, with a growing Hindu nationalist movement that Israeli commandos work with as partners in the war on terror [sic]. A series of terrorist attacks is carried out by a group which at the very least, has been getting moral support from Israel as part of the latter's intensifying partnership with the politically-based Hindu nationalist movement - the one holding political power - and then the chief anti-terror investigator is killed in another attack, carried out by people whose identities and allegiances are not entirely clear. Dr. Vijay Prashad, in an excellent analysis of this relationship, makes a very good case that India is foolish employing Israel to advise them on security, since the Israeli record of success actually stinks. But my guess is that it's all much more diabolically orchestrated than what's been muckraked to date, and that Israel is influencing the political machinations in New Delhi in just as reprehensible ways as they've been doing for years in Washington. That Jews were killed in Mumbia now makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? We shouldn't ever believe for a minute that the State of Israel is unwilling to sacrifice the people it claims it exists to protect, in the interests of a higher goal. Back home, these deaths feed the monster, who in turn feeds on Muslim blood. The Hindu right loves Netanyahu; Netanyahu would just as soon nuke Gaza, and on and on and on.

To my mind, these are all very, very high stakes. Consider the decoupling of India and PakGhanistan in Richard Holbooke's mission statement. Evidently the Indian government had a very effective lobbying operation which succeeded in getting Obama (and presumably, Killary) to agree to keeping India out of the operations profile. India, perhaps under Israeli guidance, wants to remain an independent partner, a rogue operator, if you will, carrying out its own anti-terror (read: anti-muslim) agenda, which apparently is all about provocation but that is, after all, what fascists have always done best. What i find truly mind-boggling is why huge contries like the US and India are organizing their agendas according to what one of the smallest, most racist, countries ever tells them to prioritize. Whether Obama at some point takes the leap and says 'enough' remains to be seen, but this much is certain: Israel's agenda is totally corrupt and is magnifying conflicts which could otherwise be headed towards some measurable resolution. Intrigue can be a positive rush, but not this kind, if i choose to be honest about it.

Searching for pespective

While "the networks" are replete with images of guys in Armani suits holding back tears on the floor of the NYSE, LSE and other trading pits around the globe, and sure, we are feelin' their pain (as Governhater Palin might say), consider the situation in Zimbabwe, which today has recorded an inflation rate of 231.000.000%!!! According to this story, more than 80% of Zimbabweans are now living on about 1 EURO per day. No Armani suits scavenging the trash pits of Harare, that's for sure. It's worth following the above link, just to see what a 1 billion dollar bill looks like. Even the greedy green eyeballs of Dick Cheney must be jumping out of their sockets at that concept, imagining the cumulative amount of cash he could stuff into a Halliburton travel bag as he prepares to flee Washington.

The point here should be clear, but since the purpose of writing a commentary is to indulge in comments, i'm going to go ahead and articulate some thoughts on the intensifying global economic meltdown. The whole bailout business at its heart is about making sure that the people who have screwed up don't get too screwed and find themselves having to live entirely off of their Cayman Islands accounts. Again, that's my view of the bailout plan, i'm not an economist but i do grasp the purpose of reading glasses. The pundits are freaking out about W going all commie on us by nationalizing banks, but i'm guessing in the corridors of designer wealth, the more substantial freak out is over how the bailout pie will be divided up among the miserly tentacles of JP Morgan Chase. The fact that it's no longer a bull market in Wall Street shouldn't fool us into thinking there's no bull being chucked around. The fate of money markets is not controlled by small mortgage providers, sick people buying insulin with credit cards, or families living in grandpa's shed after losing their homes to foreclosures. No, these markets are controlled by people with the money to control them, people who are willing to let the mid-level traders fry in the interest of pushing their own economic control up another notch or two.

What we are seeing happen now is starting to be described as class warfare precisely because it's going to result in a lot more people falling to the bottom of the barrel; meanwhile, those looking over the top of the barrel are now on extension ladders reaching into the stratosphere. While i'm not stupid enough to claim "We are all Zimbabweans now!" i do believe there is an important parallel to note between the willingness of rich countries to let poor countries' production levels and ergo, their economies, entirely collapse and the unflinching demand by Wall Street bankers that the US taxpayers should take over their debt. Perhaps if by US taxpayers we were referring to the 5% of the population harboring extreme wealth (over $100.000.000? $500.000.000?), one might see a tone of fairness thrown into the equation. Yet that's not who is going to pick up the bill. Haitians may emit a little grin at seeing the IMF turn its sights on America with SAP manuals in tow, but the stark truth is that countries like Haiti (who actually deserve reparations from the US) are being even more completely hung out to dry as what help they might have received is now being directed toward rich bankers who've convinced people that the entire US economy will implode if they no longer have board meetings to attend. Implode, i might add, is absolutely the correct term to apply here.

To some extent, the lack of concern among average Westerners towards poverty in the Global South - specifically, the inequalities and lack of fair playing field that has perpetuated this impoverishment - is now coming back in kharmic fashion to bite them. The attitude that the prosperous West was disconnected from the flailing South created an isolationism of the mind, a belief that "we" have a system that works (but you don't, sorry), and a total lack of attention to the fact that this system has become a complete house of cards - cardboard - loose leaf paper - post its! - built on very little that's tangible even as it's eaten up tangible wealth in order to spread laterally as well as vertically. Calling the current state of affairs a trickle down disaster would be generous albeit erroneous; we're dealing with something closer to the volume of the Yangtze than we are the River Jordan. The really sickening thing about this is that the practice of using money - wealth on paper, a kind of smoke and mirrors exercise - to generate more money (accumulating interest in accord with whatever the financial markets determine that interest should be), has so penetrated every aspect of the economy that real, tangible wealth is being ground up like hamburger meat in order to save a system which is essentially just theoretical even though it allows those who control it to live a life well beyond the planet's means. It's worth noting, as well, that for the first time in a very long time, a West European country on the verge of economic collapse - Iceland - has gone to Russia for assistance. It's going to be interesting to see if the approach here is to use the rubles to rejuvenate Iceland's economy from the ground up, i.e. by investing in things which will produce real wealth, or whether it will mostly be dumped on trading floors to raise the value of financial assets.

Realizing that this all seems rather abstract or more than likely, mentally impaired, i'll try to bring it down to earth a little vis a vis this short film about a kids' bank in India. Sometimes it's helpful to return to basics, which in this case means thinking about what the purpose of banks should really be. Taking a firm anti-capitalist position on the entire banking system has its obvious appeal, but as the kids in this report point out, there is an important service being provided and a perspective on banking that is actually service-oriented in ways that money markets and currency speculation most definitely are not. Consider it a simple reminder that whatever financial structure a society embraces, its ultimate success depends not on whether it can be milked to excess for personal gain, but the extent to which it contributes to the functioning of the community as a whole.

Following up on my recent post about the US-India nuclear deal, Reuters is reporting today that at least 40 private companies (Indian) are now lobbying their government to allow privately owned and operated nuclear power plants. It's a nice idea, diversifying the energy sector and not putting the entire financial burden of that on the state. i'd put it in the same league as applauding oil companies for their leadership in finding a way out of our addiction to petroleum. As a wise man once said, "To hell with facts! We need stories!" One story we can always depend on hearing from the private sector is that in the event of fiscal or material meltdown, the burden of bailout and clean-up must fall on the shoulders of the state.

This is yet another facet of the nuke industry's self-deception. Clean and efficient electricity production? Sure, as long as one doesn't take into account uranium mining and processing, spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, transportation hazards, long-term waste storage (let's say 24,000 years minimum), rampant plant cost overruns and impacts of any accidental releases or Chernobyl style meltdown. You can bet that as soon as detectors in Abu Dhabi start picking up high levels of cesium, the Indian government would be asked to step in and manage the emergency response. (If i remember correctly, Exxon was not in charge of trying to salvage the oil-soaked animals who happened to find themselves in the Valdez' spill zone... notice any kind of pattern here?) These nuke people are just living in a dream world and yes, i'd certainly add Candidate Obama to the list of dreamers. Building NPPs in a country whose basic infrastructure is either collapsing or on the verge of collapse is pure stupidity. Building them in countries which are disastrously impacted by earthquakes, monsoons, hurricanes and tsunamis increases the stupidity variable ten-fold. They consume a huge amount of resources to build and maintain, leave a wake of environmental havoc, and pose too great a risk in a world run by incompetent extremists.

......

Few days later. Reading this again, i realized that i neglected to point out that the US "civilian" nuclear power industry was privatized from the get-go and is a good case in point against privatization. elsewhere. The weapons manufacturing network is a joint private-public venture: GE, Dupont, Westinghouse.... all of whom also profit from the civilian nuke sector. (Ironically, in some aspects the two were more distinct in the USSR than the US.) The nuke lobby likes to claim that the number of accidents and other mishaps at US NPPs is very low, but they are not including the weapons plants, managed by the very same corporations. These places are so dirty, their workers suffer the same health crises as veterans of atomic tests, and the only reason we know so much more about the nightmare that is Hanford, et al. and have seen so much more effort put into cleaning them up is because they are ultimately owned by the DOE. Investigating the history of any NPP, one sees a lot more near disasters than might be expected and a whole lot less transparency. The companies have not built up the piggy banks they are required by law to have - a set percentage of plant costs, annually - to collectively pay for a permanent waste storage site. Cooling ponds are filling up, the current nuke waste dump has or will soon reach capacity and stop accepting wastes - this is a big problem, and the taxpayers are going to end up paying the utilities again (essentially) to deal with it because inaction is not an option.

Energy production is too crucial and complex to manage on the basis of profits. On the basis of economics - sure, of course, we must - but even that needs to come through a democratic decision-making process, which is not what private energy companies are about. Remain ever vigilant, the guys are not to be trusted on any continent.

Yet another "height of hypocrisy" from Washington

Al-Jazeera is reporting that the US is pushing to remove the ban on nuclear materials trade with India. The hypocrisy here should be obvious: India is no longer a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), already possesses nuclear weapons, and is not open to IAEA inspections because it is not part of the NPT regime. Compare this to Iran's nuclear status and therein lies the rub.

According to al-Jazeera, "Diplomats close to the suppliers group talks say that France, Russia, Canada, Brazil and South Africa are in favour of an agreement." Let's take a guess as to which countries are engaged in marketing their nuclear technologies in new Delhi, should the exemption for purchase be granted. As far as the US nuclear industry goes, this is one way to build up the necessary wad of investment cash for the much-touted maniacal rejuvenation of the US nuclear power industry - it's been well over 20 years since any new plants were built - on top of the normal military tech profiteering that helps firms like Lockheed Martin maintain their company yachts. The US Congressional Research Service published an interesting report about US-India relations last year; start reading on p. 31 if you'd like to see how many billions in weapons are being sold and to get some idea of Israel's role in assuring the flow of arms into Asia continues to increase.