The Jihafrica

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup

 

The Jihafrica

 The biggest threat to African peace and prosperity comes from a dangerous idea, the African jihad or Jihafrica.

THE descent from tourist destination to no-man’s land has been a short one on Kenya’s coast. The only foreign visitors of interest on the beach in recent months are Somali jihadists At this rate the coast may come to resemble northern Nigeria. One Nairobi-based ambassador frets about the “birth of a Kenyan Boko Haram” (a reference to Nigeria’s most brutal group of Islamist).

It seems more likely that the jihadist superbug will turn south. The Sahel, an arid belt on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, has already caught the virus from Algeria and Libya. 
 
Ever more places in sub-Saharan Africa are no-go zones, including parts of Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger. Northern Mali has been off-limits to outsiders (and especially Westerners) since an Islamist-backed uprising in 2012. Recent attacks by Boko Haram have killed hundreds in Nigeria and Chad, prompting Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, to dismiss his military chiefs. 
 
On the continent’s eastern side, violent Islamism has crossed south of the equator, spreading as far as Tanzania More than a dozen sub-Saharan countries are now dealing with jihadism at home (see map). They include Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Jihadist attacks in many places are a daily or weekly occurrence Sudan is a crossroads through which many extremists groups combine or swap men, material and know-how 

 

The two major brands of violent jihadism, IS and al-Qaeda, compete for the allegiance of various groups of African jihadists. The cancer of jihadism in sub-Saharan Africa will probably spread outward from conflicts now underway involving groups in Libya and Nigeria; their members are likely to flee into the sandy expanse that covers much of Africa above the equator,

Although the extremist groups are backed by well-financed elites, they could not survive without popular support. Every one of them taps into well-known local grievances. From Mali and Nigeria to Kenya and Tanzania the story is the same: extremists emerge from and woo Muslim populations on the national periphery who are fed up with decades of neglect, discrimination and mistreatment by their rulers. Jihadists are able to exploit existing religious tensions and latch on to disgruntled Muslim communities.
Increasingly what drives African extremism is not just opportunity or firepower but ideology.

A distinct flavor of poisonous thinking has spread across thousands of miles. Islamism is the continent’s new ideology of protest. Only genuine political competition could change this dynamic. Yet most ethnic and tribal leaders have little interest in upsetting their own hold on power. African and Western governments are thus left to counter jihadism by force of arms

Such brawn has little chance of succeeding alone.
   

         [Reduced from The Economist]

Greece's Financial Meltdown

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup



 Greece's Financial Meltdown

European policymakers would have done well to pay attention in 1997 when free-market political economist Milton Friedman predicted that the euro would be a disaster. Eighteen years later, with Greece on the verge of a financial meltdown, his analysis looks prophetic. European common market conditions are unfavorable for a common currency. The separate nations of different languages, customs, and  nationalism have not yet developed the idea of 'Europe'.  Despite being a free trade area, goods move less freely among them, regulation of industrial and employment practices differs far more from country to country, and as a result, wages and prices in Europe are more rigid, and labor less mobile.

It appears Friedman concluded rightly that "  The drive for the Euro has been motivated by politics not economics. The aim has been to link Germany and France so closely as to make a future European war impossible, and to set the stage for a federal United States of Europe. I believe that adoption of the Euro would have the opposite effect. It would exacerbate political tensions by converting divergent shocks that could have been readily accommodated by exchange rate changes into divisive political issues. Political unity can pave the way for monetary unity. Monetary unity imposed under unfavorable conditions will prove a barrier to the achievement of political unity".

The Greek government-debt crisis has its origin in the Greek Depression that started in late 2009, first of the four in the Eurozone. The root cause is said to be "a combination of structural weaknesses in the Greek economy along with a decade-long pre-existence of overly high structural deficits and debt-to-GDP levels of public accounts ". Fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning Greece's ability to meet its debt obligations, confounded  by the revelation that the government had hidden the actual data on government debt levels and deficits from public domain. In 2012, Greece's government had the largest sovereign debt default in history. Greece became the first developed country to fail to make an IMF €1.6 billion loan repayment on June 30, 2015. At that time, Greece's government had debts of €323bn. The resultant crisis of confidence had a cascading effect on worsening the financial predicament.

Now the time has run out for Greece, which is dealing with an economy in a protracted recession, with high unemployment and banks dangerously low on capital. The international bailout — under which it received nearly 240 billion euros in rescue loans — expired last week, on the same day Greece defaulted on an IMF repayment, becoming the first developed nation to do so. Of critical importance will be whether the European Central Bank (ECB) decides to maintain its lifeline to Greece in the form of emergency liquidity assistance, or ELA. The assistance, now at around 90 billion euros, has been maintained but not increased in past days, leaving the country's financial system in a stranglehold

Greece's debt crisis had taken a dramatic turn after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras suddenly called a crunch  referendum on bailout conditions (to implement austerity measures in exchange for a bail out ) early last Saturday knowing well that a 'no' vote  could determine its financial future and even its place in the eurozone and  could also make or break the radical-left government  In answer to the fears Tsipras says the vote is needed to force creditors to finally accept his key demand of another round of debt relief to save Greece from financial meltdown and possibly crashing out of the euro.

Tsipras's gambit sparked consternation among his country's international creditors, and led to the breaking off of talks on the rescue plan just days before the country was due to repay 1.5 billion euros to the IMF. With nothing left in the state's coffers, Greece defaulted on its IMF debt, and was forced on Monday to impose capital controls and close banks to halt a haemorrhage of cash as anxious Greeks rushed to withdraw money.

Nevertheless, Tsipras got a rock-star welcome at an Athens rally late Friday as he sought to revive support for the 'No' vote in a referendum called to strengthen his hand in talks with international creditors.

A pensioner crying before a bank

 Sunday's vote was held after a week of capital controls imposed to halt a bank run, with Greeks restricted to a daily cash withdrawal maximum of 60 euros ($67). Long lines have formed at ATMs, while pensioners without bank cards have thronged the few bank branches opened to allow them access to a maximum 120 euros for the week. Queues at ATMs swelled again as the initial results of the referendum, a thumping 'No' came in.

People celebrating a 'no' verdict

  The ECB operates on rules according to which it can only continue ELA funding if Greece is in a bailout. Without an increase, it is unclear how much longer people will be allowed to withdraw 60 euros per day.Some analysts say Greece is so starved of cash that it could be forced to start issuing its own currency. No country has ever left the 19-member eurozone, established in 1999.

While EU leaders  warned that a 'No' victory could cause Greece to crash out of the Eurozone and rival raliies of 'yes' supporters  shouted pro-European slogans and voiced fears of a so-called "Grexit" from the eurozone and a return to Greece's former currency, the drachma,  Tsipras got his way. The margin of victory was far wider than expected, which led the opposition leader to resign. This victory for the 'no' camp will unfortunately embolden the government, but is likely to do little to convince the creditors that Tsipras is a trustworthy negotiating partner who has any ability to implement a deal.

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Testing The Waters.

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup


 Testing The Waters.

  Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) veteran and margadarshak, Lal Krishna Advaniji has emphasized the need for probity on the part of political parties, citing his own resignation in the face of hawala accusation in the past, which becomes rather spiked and striking in a literal sense, in the current context of the chorus for resignations of the three BJP women ministers, Swaraj, Scindia, and Munde.

The statement on the face of it sounds.like an ethical pronouncement, but in fact can be viewed as a bit sanctimonious. Given the real facts and vacuous hysteria of a largely hostile scruple less media, the advice or suggestion seems to be a little loaded with tentative opportunism.

It is gullible to believe that Advaniji was not wiser to the possibility, nay, certainty of his statement providing heavier caliber ammunition to the excited Congress and the BJP- basher section of the media.  Put together with yesterday's sarcastic comment of another old guard, Yeshwant Sinha, that the present leadership of BJP considers those above 75 in age as "brain-dead", and Advaniji's own earlier observation affirming the possibility of a second emergency in the country, it appears that the old relegated leadership finds an opportunity however tenuous, to stage a come back or at least to regain their lost voice.

But how much of an opportunity is the current controversy about the culpability of BJP ministers? Congress is painting the town red with accusations after accusations either dug out by themselves or hoisted by the media. Barring another desperado party like the Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP,),  themselves facing dooms day scenario of impotency, confounded by criminality of their key members, dissidence and schism, the other opposition parties stay aloof.

The matter that hurts the Congress much to their discomfiture, is the singular absence of scams in the new governance. Like the uncouth horn bill bird said to be yearning for the rain from above to fall on its beak as otherwise it cannot drink normally with its huge bill, it has been wishing its heart out for a full sized scam or at least for a fraction of a scam to fall and settle on the govt. A fraction or just a semblance will do; it can always be blown up, with an ever conspiring, confabulating, rating -thirsty media at its side.

But what got thrown at them or in the arena was a mischievous onion by that mercurial Lalit Modi. Any one who tries to peel its layers and layers ends up with nothing but unexpected tears, whether it is Sushma, Raje, Chidambaram, Priyanka-Vadra, or Sonia.  And Rahul doesn't care two sneeze about it so long as it gives another opportunity to meditate on the Jupiter's velocity, or perhaps women empowerment in Thailand. 

  Advaniji's testing the water to find it is warm enough or not for taking another splash, not withstanding age, may raise the question: - should resignation be the norm at the accusation stage.

The Great Indian Yoga Moment

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup

The Great Indian Yoga Moment

The famed Rajpath where India's gratest glory spectacle the Republic Day Parade is held was turned in to a veritable 'Yogapath", as PM Modii put it so aptly,  for the celebration of the very Modi- inspired International Yoga Day today. While the nature blessed the event with a slight monsoon  sprinkle, the rain god held back till the end.


  The heart of India’s capital today turned into a sea of colorful mats as Prime Minister Narendra Modi led thousands of people performing various physical postures across the country for the first International Yoga Day. PM Modi was expected to make only a speech at the event and not take part at the mass yoga session. But dressed in all-white kurta-pyjama and a tricolour scarf, 64-year-old Modi took everyone by surprise by performing a variety of postures including Vajrasan and Padmasan, along with nearly 40,000 people on red mats on the Rajpath in a 30-minute mass outdoor yoga session from 7 am, also aimed at qualifying for the Guinness Book of Records.

 
  Before going to the event, the prime minister tweeted early this morning "greetings to people around the world on 1st International Day of Yoga! Lets pledge to make Yoga an integral part of our daily lives ."
 
  Heralding the session, off the event, Modi said the yoga session is aimed at benefiting the people by making them both physically and mentally healthy. He said yoga seeks to make a tension-free world and spread the message of harmony and added that it is "more than only physical fitness". "We are not only celebrating a day but we are training the human mind to begin a new era of peace – harmony. ….This is a programme for the benefit of mankind, a tension-free world and a programme to spread the message of harmony," Modi said.
 
  Giant digital screens set up for the event beamed live the yoga session for which security arrangements matched that of the Republic Day celebrations held every year on January 26 as more than 8,000 security personnel guarded the venue. Yoga day was  celebrated in over 251 cities in 191 countries across the world; in Britain, mats were rolled out along the banks of the River Thames
 
 
  In spite of certain communal  quarters and the opposition, trying to  hit the event of 'peace and harmony' with jarring notes of discord and in the process belittling one of India's greatest contributions to the world,  the whole of India celebrated yoga day almost unanimously.

The TV Media Mongers, the 'Fugitives' From Political Fair Play

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup



 The TV Media Mongers, the 'Fugitives' From Political Fair Play

 It is a shame that the bulk of TV channels are increasingly turning in to a sham. If one visits the cantankerous Times Now channel which has abandoned all sense of  fair shake and open-mindedness, and see their frenzy to indulge in a 24 x 7 Sushma-Scindia bashing, led by their loud-mouthed, pretentious Arnab Goswami, and then visit the  many other channels trying hard not to be outdone, one gathers the impression that it is all a frenetic fight for viewer- rating, getting more ads, and thus more profit. Arnab Goswami is so swollen- headed that he believes  he can single handedly bring any government to its knee, no matter how big is the popular mandate for the ruling party. When one serves himself such a big ladle of that  intoxicating concoction of self delusion and megalomania , it is better that he is left to reel in his own juice.

But what are the facts? Let us deal with the allegations one by one.

1. That,  Lalit Modi , former Commissioner of Indian Premier League (IPL), the  cricket body, is an 'absconde'r or a  'fugitive'.

Fact: A competent authority, including a court, has to declare a person a "fugitive'. Lalith Modi has not been declared a fugitive by any court or authority.

2. That a Blue Corner notice has been issued against him by Interpol.

Fact: The Interpol has denied that they have issued any such notice. What turned out in this matter, as the Finance Minister mentioned, is that the Dept. of Revenue Intelligence has issued a "light blue corner notice". But unless the Interpol has accepted this and issued their own notice, this departmental notice has no significance or value. In any case a blue corner notice means merely that the concerned person may intimate his present address, and as such does not necessarily  implicates him in any offense.

3. That, the External Affairs Minister, Smty.Sushma Swaraj requested or gave no- objection certificate from this government to the British government to issue travel documents to Lalith Modi.

Fact: Sushma Swaraj did no such thing. No request  No certificate. She merely said when asked orally, yes orally, that the government has no objection in the matter for the British government to take whatever legally proper action.
And why should she have any objection when Lalith Modi was just like any other citizen with no criminal case- record against him. Especially when the whole context was a life or death question of Cancer surgery on his wife in Portugal? How heinous politics can be to raise objections in such a  predicament of a fellow citizen!

There are other adjunct allegations. They pale in to insignificance and downright comic in the light of above facts  which can only show how malicious is the Congress and the channels.

China's Long Nose

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup

China's Long Nose

 China is of late poking its long nose in to Afghanistan aiming at weaning away that country from any Indian influence and instead having their own in the entire region, embracing Pakistan too. Unfortunately for India the new Afghanistan President, Ashraf Ghani, elected in mid-2014, is more willing than previous President Karzai for closer ties with Pakistan. 


In February 2015, a new strategic dialogue was held between Pakistan and Afghanistan under Chinese coordination, illustrating Beijing’s recent interest in its strategic neighborhood. Since 2001, China had been limiting its intervention to minimal security contribution; but over the past two years, a proactive tone has been used vis-à-vis improving bilateral ties with Afghanistan.




One of the ostensible reasons for China's new interest in the region, specially Afghanistan, is said to be its concerns about the growing insurgency in its Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. It sees the Uyghur separatist movement as a national security matter with important external connections and wants to preempt any chance of Afghanistan becoming a strong base for Uyghur militancy. But the fact that the Uyghur separatist movement  has not overgrown the Zinjiang province to a degree that China cannot tackle it within its borders gives little credence to this view.

  The more apparent reason for this new thrust of Chinese diplomacy in Afghanistan is, along with the move to sideline India in that country, is to fill the space vacated by US and become the dominant strategic power in the region especially when they have  the conniving friendly Pakistan' and thus become the counter weight to India. Further it may now want to leave a  cleare economic foot print that can overflow and spread in the whole region.
 
  However, India is unlikely to be sidelined in Afghanistan. New Delhi is still an important strategic partner for Kabul, and the future of their bilateral relations depends on how India manages to balance and maintain its ties with Kabul.

The Ford Foundation- NGOs -AAP Nexus

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup




 The Ford Foundation- NGOs -AAP Nexus



 Long before the Modi government  put the Ford Foundation (FF) on the watch list of NGOs suspected of having unstated agenda, France's Stonor Saunders wrote in 2001: ". The Ford Foundation had a record of close involvement in covert actions in Europe, working closely with Marshall Plan and CIA officials on specific projects.". The very next year, James Petras, retired Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, wrote a damning article on 18 September 2002, exposing the Ford Foundation’s sinister choice of beneficiaries of its donations. Citing a US Congressional investigation in 1976 that said the CIA considered foundations such as Ford “the best and most plausible kind of funding cover” he revealed that beginning the 1950s, “50 per cent of the 700 grants in the field of international activities by the principal foundations were funded by the CIA, The crux of professor' s accusation was to the efect that the Ford Foundation-CIA connection was a deliberate, conscious joint effort to strengthen U.S. imperial cultural hegemony. Naomi Klein ("The Shock Doctrin") speaks of a double game By FF of intellectual sponsorship of fascist intellectuals and in the aftermath that follows, sponsorship of human rights organizations. Most of the  projects  looked innocuous but had American soft imperialism as its motive

McCloy, while chairman of the Ford Foundation's board of trustees from 1958 to 1965, had at that time itself said of the Ford Foundation as a quasi-extension of the U.S. government. Ford and similar foundations played a key role in co-opting opposition movements. The doctrine that guided in that was: "While dissent from ruling class ideas is labeled 'extremism' and is isolated, individual dissenters may be welcomed and transformed. Indeed, ruling class hegemony is more durable if it is not rigid and narrow, but is able dynamically to incorporate emergent trends".

R Vaidyanathan of the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru, in his investigative article ‘Is India safe: What is Ford Foundation?’ mention the following as having recieved Ford foundation grants:

•  Sampoorn Parivartan (later christened Parivartan) of Arvind Kejriwal and Kabir of both Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia.

•   ICSSR of Jawaharlal Nehru University that funded Yogendra Yadav.

•  PRADAN of Meera Sanyal.

 There are other Leftist noise makers who are beneficiaries of the Ford Foundation:

•  Mallika Sarabhai’s NGO Darpana.

• Amartya Sen for his book, The Idea of Justice.

• Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand’s Sabrang Communication.

Activists in Gujarat allege that Sarabhai runs an ‘empire of trusts’ in the State.  Mallika Sarabhai is a trustee in several trusts that own miles and miles of plots of land across Ahmedabad. The book, Toward Sustainable Development: Struggling Over India’s Narmada River, edited by William F Fisher, shows special interest of these American outfits in Medha Patkar’s Narmada Bachao Andolan: Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Indo-US Sub-Commission on Education and Culture and the US Department of Education

Sarajith Dasgupta, Edior, National Affairs of  Swarajya.describes the various nefarious connections Arvind Kejriwal and his cohorts have with FF extracting funds from it. According to him there is also a suspect  nexus of CIA- Indian National Congress. He cites the   Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) -   MongoDB contract as an example for this.   

A check up with the web site of Ford Foundation would suggest that almost all NGOs have some Government, then National Advisory Council (NAC) or AAP connection: In fact AAP or close association with it seems to be the major conduit of FF dispensation of grants in India. The book, Toward Sustainable Development: Struggling Over India’s Narmada River, edited by William F Fisher, shows special interest of these American outfits in Medha Patkar’s Narmada Bachao Andolan: Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Indo-US Sub-Commission on Education and Culture and the US Department of Education.
The CIA’s unusual interest in the AAP is evident in the fact that in 2012, right after the party was registered by the Election Commission of India, the American spy agency released a list of “significant” parties in this country. Every party that featured in the list except the AAP was a recognized party — one that has participated in elections in at least four States of the country and secured 6 per cent of the total votes polled. This, when the AAP was just one month old with no record of participation in elections!
Simlilarly Sisdia's NGO Kabir got FF funds before it was registered Later, Kabir resurfaced in newspapers with evidence of Sisodia misappropriating the foreign funds received by Kabir. Moreover, the papers revealed that Kejriwal is a part of Kabir, too.


Stichting Hivos, the Netherlands, part funded by FF is also a donor who maintains a full-fledged country office in India, and one of the co-financing agencies to the Government of the Netherlands, whose embassy funds Kejriwal and Sisodia’s NGO, Kabir. AAP’s Yogendra Yadav has been associated with two bodies  both recipients of the Ford Foundation’s grants.

A larger network of miscreants, Maoists, Marxists, evangelists, tablighis, terrorists, India bashers and financiers of disruptive activities in this country helping the AAP has surfaced. To understand how the entire international network works, the personnel connecting one nefarious organisation to another must be studied.

On 19 July 2011, two people of Pakistani origin were arrested in Washington DC. The US Department of Justice records describe one of them, Ghulam Nabi Fai, as an agent of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The New York Times reported that Fai was coordinating between the activities of several ultra-communist groups, Islamist outfits and Christian missionaries in India.

 Fai once worked closely with Rajmohan Gandhi, the AAP’s paratrooped candidate from the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. Gandhi was one of the prominent signatories to the petition by 53 odd well-networked ‘liberals’ like Ved Bhasin and Gautam Navlakha that defended Fai and demanded his release from the American jail. . This Fai had enlisted the support of  anthropologist-activist Angana P Chatterji, who supports the cause of Kashmir’s separation from India, to further his agenda. Angana is the one who was given the Tipu Sultan Award in 2008 by   US-based advocacy group Indian Muslim Council (IMC)

Chatterji happens to be a co-author of the book, Kashmir: The Case for Freedom, whose other authors are Arundhati Roy, Pankaj Mishra, Hilal Bhatt and Tariq Ali.  Forum of Inquilabi Leftists (FOIL, earlier called Federation of Indian Leftists), and the Association for India’s Development (AID). both floated by elements of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) [CPI(ML)] who moved to the US  after the collapse of Naxalism in India, They are alleged to be closely collaborating with AAP nd facilitate funding to various leftist extremist outfits by showing the financiers legally valid ways of routing the money, and also collects funds for the AAP

According to Dasgupta, in 1999, Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand’s magazines Sabrang and Communalism Combat had, through their channels in the Indian National Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], extracted $ 15 million to project the BJP as an anti-minority, anti-woman party. Recently, the couple accepted that they had diverted part of the fund for their NGO for personal use. All these people and their shady organisations are connected to each other and international rackets..

The overwhelming presence of the then  Government, NAC and AAP functionaries among the beneficiaries of the Ford Foundation is not a mere coincidence