8th January, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Dennis Ross and Dan Shapiro are slated for jobs in the Barack Obama administration.

An official close to the transition team told JTA on Thursday that Shapiro, a former senior U.S. Senate staffer and the Obama official who handled outreach to the Jewish community, and Ross, President Clinton’s top Middle East envoy, are “likely to have jobs with the administration.”

The official commented after JTA called to confirm reports that Ross was slated to be the chief Middle East adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama’s secretary of state-designate, and that Shapiro would head the Middle East desk at the National Security Council. The official could not confirm those reports.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where Ross is currently a senior fellow, on Wednesday sent to the Washington Post a premature news release congratulating him on his appointment advising the secretary of state, and indicating that Ross’ new appointment would outrank his previous government role. In his new capacity, Ross would supervise Obama’s Middle East envoy.

The Washington Institute on Thursday refused comment on the release.

Both appointments would be welcomed in the pro-Israel community. Ross has suggested coupling Obama’s pledge for outreach to Iran with tough sanctions. Shapiro was a lead in drafting the 2003 Syria Accountability Act, which imposed sanctions on Syria in part for its sponsorship of anti-Israel terrorist groups.

AL-MANAR TV

08/01/2009 The Qatari “Arab” newspaper said that Egyptian security officers disobeyed orders in protest at the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
The daily quoted the Egyptian “Sawt el-Umma” Arabic for the “Voice of the Nation” weekly that members of the Egyptian security apparatus in the Nasser Central Security camp refused orders to take guard shifts at the Rafah crossing on the border with Gaza. Read the rest of this entry »

Benjamin Dangl

Guardian

7th January, 2009

It was a fresh morning after a night of rain, and we were hiking up into the mountains in southern France. The plants and trees glowed with green, vibrant life. Sheep and cows were meandering in the fields, and the blue sky stretched out for miles. Then I heard a faint beeping noise that didn’t sound like a bird. The Italian hiker next to me had a heavy pack and was sweating profusely in the cool morning. He heard the beep and didn’t hesitate to pick up his phone. It was his mother calling to see if he was alright at the start of his hiking trip. For the next 10 minutes, instead of listening to birds sing and observing the morning view, he had a conversation with someone who wasn’t there.

This was the start of a month-long hike I took through northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago. I decided to take this break from work in part to get away from my cell phone – as Americans call mobiles – and computer screen. This time away offered me some perspectives on how – to paraphrase Henry David Thoreau – I had become a tool of my tools.

Before I left on the hike, I read an interesting essay in the magazine Adbusters calledTechnoslave, written by Eric Slate. In the essay Slate recalls: “Once, while I was riding on a crowded bus, the man sitting next to me threw his cell phone out the window. When his phone rang, instead of dutifully answering it, he casually tossed it away. I was stunned. He looked at me, shrugged and looked away. I had no idea if it was his, if it was stolen or if he even knew what a cell phone was. But in one seemingly careless motion, he managed to liberate himself from something that has completely consumed me.”

This story resonated with me. Like so many other people these days, my livelihood is based on being connected – online or on my cell phone. But five years into what had essentially become an addiction to cell phone use, I realised that instead of keeping me connected to the world, my cell phone had set up a wall between me and the people and community around me. And I’m not the only one. When hiking through Spain, off the Verizon grid of connectedness, I reflected on how cell phone use has crept into every aspect of daily life, ironically weakening the basic human communication that is the fabric of any community.

Billions of people across the world use cell phones. Though cell phones can be wonderful,liberating tools of communication, freeing us from the confines of an office and providing more leisure time, they often do the exact opposite. Cell phone use has blurred the boundaries between work and non-work time, increasing stress and tension within families and between friends. As Slate commented in his essay: “It seems the more ‘connected’ we are, the more detached we become.”

Back on the hiking trail in Spain, I saw this play out in myriad ways. Though I was experiencing cell phone freedom, I found myself surrounded by people, mainly Europeans, on their phones, texting and talking with concerned family members and friends throughout the day. People were torn between developing friendships with strangers and contacting old friends and family they already knew.

There is a risk of being too connected. While I was hiking, I got lost a few times. I saw new sights and was surprised by unexpected landscapes and towns I wouldn’t have otherwise come across. Back in the US, whenever I got lost, I would always call a friend for directions on my cell phone. With a cell phone, you’re less likely to go down the wrong street and see new things or unexpectedly meet new people.

So, when I recently returned home to Burlington, Vermont, I got rid of my cell phone and traded in an old, rusty bike for a regular landline telephone that is connected to the wall and everything. Now, I go outside and don’t immediately make a phone call or check my phone. Therefore, I’ve seen things in my neighbourhood I never noticed before, like a big flower garden around the block and artwork and sculptures down the road. Now that I’m not glued to my cell phone, I’ve met new people on the street and at the supermarket, struck up conversations with neighbours I haven’t spoken with before and talk with my friends face-to-face instead of over the phone.

Instead of cutting me off from the world, getting rid of my cell phone has helped me get in touch with my community. The other day, my neighbours and I marvelled together at a moose running down the street toward the lake. Somehow, that moose brought the neighbourhood together more than a cell phone ever could.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=213380

Cailean Bochanan

18th July, 2007

Two recent events could point to the emergence of a genuine opposition to the ruling elite in the anglosphere: the break from the left by Cindy Sheehan and her decision to stand against Pelosi and Michael Moore’s belated recognition of the dark underside of 9/11 and the need for a proper investigation. Both cases revealed a high level of disillusionment with the Democratic Party and its failure to exploit its election success in November.

Read the rest of this entry »