August 2006

Miss City of Port of Spain, in Pictures

TriniView.com, Trinidad and Tobago

The Miss City of Port of Spain 2006, which was a production of the Port of Spain Corporation, took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Wrightson Road, Port of Spain on Sunday August 06th 2006.
Continue to Miss City of Port of Spain, in Pictures

Miss City of Port of Spain 2006
The Crown Plaza Hotel was the host venue of the Miss City of Port of Spain Pageant which took place on Sunday 6th August, 2006.
Full Article : triniview.com

August 8, 2006 News
Posted: Tuesday, August 8, 2006

¤ Iraq PM criticizes U.S.-led attack
¤ Graphic details emerge in hearing on Iraqi slayings
¤ Soldiers 'hit golf balls before going out to kill family'
¤ Lebanon pleads for ceasefire as Israeli blitz kills 69
¤ Condi's 'New Middle East'
¤ The End of Illusions
¤ India rejects US ban on firms dealing with Iran
¤ Requiem for Baghdad
¤ The Clearing of South Lebanon
¤ The Malleable US Constitution
¤ Into the Valley of Death
¤ Israel Responded to an Unprovoked Attack by Hizbullah, Right? Wrong
¤ The Shame of America
¤ Clinton's Iraq About-Face is Transparent
¤ Israel's Misguided Strategies
¤ 9/11 Commission Chairmen Admit Whitewashing the Cause of the Attacks
¤ The Brilliantly Profitable Timing of the Alaska Oil Pipeline Shutdown
¤ IRAQ: Garbage accumulation causes health problems
¤ Thirty killed in Iraq violence
¤ Ending the neoconservative nightmare
¤ Mexican cops fire in air during protests
¤ Brutal US attack on unarmed Afghans captured by photos
¤ Crocodile tears of leaders as city burns
¤ Iran's changing fortunes
¤ Deadly Israeli strike scatters mourners
¤ Cuba for dummies: A primer for Americans
¤ UN sounds Lebanon oil spill alarm
¤ Lebanese dead going unburied
¤ Karzai desperate for support
¤ Iraqi leader blasts U.S.
¤ Sales reps needed to sell Internet ads
¤ Why the Lieberman Website Story is Bullshit.
¤ Doctoring Photographs or Censoring War Crimes?
¤ Beirut oil slick devastates the Mediterranean
¤ The Iraq War Enablers
¤ 'Did you know' that Israel . . .
¤ John Bolton: Dead Lebanese worth less than dead Israelis
¤ The end of the beginning
¤ Uncensored News Reports From Across The Middle East Graphic
¤ Big Oil and the Trillion-Dollar War Bonus
¤ Why the Lebanese resistance are clobbering the IDF
¤ Once Again, Error and Betrayal in Lebanon
¤ New and unkown deadly weapons used by Israeli forces
¤ Draft of Lebanon United Nations Security Council Resolution
¤ Colombo car bomb kills two
¤ Iraqi Medic Describes Carnage

Chavez accuses Israel of 'new Holocaust'
Posted: Monday, August 7, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday renewed his criticism of Israel's military offensive in Lebanon, calling it a "new Holocaust."
Full Article : yahoo.com

Columbus as tyrant of the Caribbean
Posted: Monday, August 7, 2006

Lost document reveals Columbus as tyrant of the Caribbean

Christopher Columbus, the man credited with discovering the Americas, was a greedy and vindictive tyrant who saved some of his most violent punishments for his own followers, according to a document uncovered by Spanish historians.

As governor and viceroy of the Indies, Columbus imposed iron discipline on the first Spanish colony in the Americas, in what is now the Caribbean country of Dominican Republic. Punishments included cutting off people's ears and noses, parading women naked through the streets and selling them into slavery.
Full Article : guardian.co.uk

August 7, 2006 News
Posted: Monday, August 7, 2006

¤ Once again, error and betrayal in Lebanon
¤ U.S. exports fantasies and weapons systems
¤ Chavez accuses Israel of 'new Holocaust'
¤ Israel widens targets to hit civilian sites
¤ Lebanon says 1,000 dead or missing
¤ Lost document reveals Columbus as tyrant of the Caribbean
¤ Iran threatens to use 'oil weapon' in nuclear standoff
¤ 15 tsunami aid staff executed in Sri Lanka
¤ Democrats who oppose illegal wars and torture want to reclaim the party
¤ This draft shows who is running America's policy... Israel
¤ Bush wants UN resolution on Lebanon conflict fast
¤ No matter what Blair calls it, Iraq is falling bloodily apart
¤ At least 15 killed in suicide bombing in Saddam's hometown
¤ The Junkies of War
¤ An End to Unilateralism
¤ Birth Pangs and Dead Babies
¤ Nice Try, Mr. Bolton
¤ A New Kind of Bigotry
¤ Dumb and Dumber
¤ High Levels of Testosterone in Bush's Urine Sample!
¤ The Nagasaki Principle
¤ Protesters Follow Vacationing Bush
¤ The War has Backfired for Israel
¤ Mystery cloaks raid on 'empty' hospital
¤ Odd that only Arab Israeli's are being killed
¤ Leftist's supporters flood Mexico City center

August 6, 2006 News
Posted: Sunday, August 6, 2006

¤ Rice: Iraq Isn't Becoming Another Iran
¤ Fed admits US recession on cards
¤ In Israel, Questions About the Conflict
¤ Would an October surprise work?
¤ Global Marches Protest Israeli Offensive
¤ Mexico Orders Partial Recount in Presidential Vote
¤ What if everything you believed was a lie?
¤ Lebanon rejects draft U.N. resolution
¤ Lebanese cabinet expresses reservations about UN draft
¤ Israel, American Media, Congress, Muslims and Christians
¤ Fury at Blair as 100,000 take to the streets over Lebanon
¤ Pictures of London demonstration against Israeli attack on Lebanon
¤ At Least 100,000 March Against US-Israeli Aggression.
¤ More children killed in Rafah
¤ Thousands of troops say they won’t fight
¤ News Media's Love-Hate for Nuclear Weapons
¤ Blood on his hands
¤ Power and Politics
¤ Priority of the UN?
¤ Junkies of War
¤ In case we all forgot, Americans are still dying in Iraq
¥ In case we all forget, Americans are still killing Iraqis
¤ The US bloodthirsty thugs open fire and butcher scores of Iraqi farmers..
¤ Postcards from the edge: Wish you were here, Mr Blair?
¤ More than 100 MPs sign petition attacking PM
¤ Summer of Goodbyes...
¤ Out to Lunch
¤ The Day after Qana Massacre Who Cares?
¤ The Case for Boycotting Israel

August 5, 2006 News
Posted: Saturday, August 5, 2006

¤ Israeli commandos renew attack on Tyre
¤ Carter: Bush pursuing 'erroneous' policy
¤ Cuba dismisses US calls for change
¤ A terrible thought occurs to me - that there will be another 9/11
¤ What happens when the Dream dies?
¤ Security incidents in Iraq
¤ Mother, two daughters killed in rocket strike on Bedouin village
¤ Bolton strong-arming the U.N.
¤ UN Approaches the Dustbin of History
¤ Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons
¤ Blair, Olmert and Bush are murderers
¤ Lebanon: 57 killed - buried under rubble
¤ Israeli Attack Kills 40 Civilians
¤ Israeli bomb attack kills 33 as aid effort suffers
¤ Switching off Life Support.
¤ Israel's bombs cut off Beirut
¤ Israeli air raid kills 33 civilians
¤ Bush Starts 10-Day Texas Vacation
¤ So You Say You Want a Revolución?
¤ Does Big Media Need to Get Any Bigger?
¤ Exonerated, Florida Death Row Inmate Tells His Tale
¤ Yes, It is a Crusade!
¤ We've Got to Keep Them Out!
¤ Some Context on Castro and Cuba
¤ Rice broadcast dismissed by Cuba
¤ UN on Trial
¤ Running Out of Money
¤ Oh Rapture!
¤ Cutting through Israel's propaganda war in the US
¤ Venezuela's Chavez compares Israel to Hitler
¤ Mass demonstration against Israel's bombing of Lebanon
¤ The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil?
¤ Understanding Tony Blair's Desperation
¤ Panic in Detroit
¤ Oil-a-garchy and what do you get?
¤ Justice Is Dead, If You're Born an Arab
¤ Venezuela Withdraws Ambassador From "Genocide" Israel
¤ Warning. Iraqi picture said to be from Lebanon
¤ If you don't believe in Flying Saucers, Then why....
¤ Thousands to march in support of immediate ceasefire

Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel of War Crimes
Posted: Friday, August 4, 2006

WASHINGTON - In systematically failing to distinguish between Hezbollah fighters and civilian population in its three-and-a-half-week-old military campaign in Lebanon, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have committed war crimes, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch Wednesday. The 50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," detailed nearly two dozen cases of IDF attacks in which a total of 153 civilians, including 63 children, were killed in homes or motor vehicles.

In none of the cases did HRW researchers find evidence that there was a significant enough military objective to justify the attack, given the risks to civilian lives, while, in many cases, there was no identifiable military target. In still other cases cited in the report, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.
Full Article : commondreams.org

August 4, 2006 News
Posted: Friday, August 4, 2006

¤ Zimbabwe: White Lies, Black Victims
¤ Bush and chaos in the world
¤ Entire Lebanese family killed in Israeli attack on hospital
¤ Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel of War Crimes
¤ Israel, not Hizbullah, is putting civilians in danger on both sides of the border
¤ War crimes and Lebanon
¤ Illogical, illegal and ill-fated
¤ U.S. generals warn of civil war in Iraq
¤ Iraq war's hidden toll
¤ Weapons of Mass Destruction Discovered Here
¤ The neocons' next war
¤ U.S. to Supply Food with One Hand, Arms with Other
¤ 21 Afghan civilians died in a suicide attack
¤ Is America Watching a Different War?
¤ Almost half the fatalities in the Gaza Strip in July were civilians
¤ Knife in the Back
¤ Iran warns oil could reach $200 on sanctions
¤ Fetch, Heel, Stall
¤ Hizbullah's attacks stem from Israeli incursions into Lebanon
¤ Psychologists, Guantánamo, and Torture
¤ Probe backs allegations against Marines
¤ News blackout imposed on American arms flights refuelling at British bases
¤ Israel's Dependency on the Drug of Militarism
¤ Evidence of Election Fraud Grows in México
¤ Castro is "Very Alive and Very Alert"
¤ A Nato-led force would be in Israel's interests, but not Lebanon's
¤ Israel's Wall of Horrors
¤ Exclusive International Reports on Qana Massacre
¤ Dear Kofi
¤ Blair admits to cabinet splits over his support for Bush on Israel
¤ Traumatised and afraid - 300,000 children
¤ Winning the Propaganda War
¤ Bush's Nutty Syria Policy
¤ Now, When Exactly Did the UN Lose Its Street Cred?
¤ Mexico Rising
¤ Mexican Civil Resistance in Five Acts
¤ Perfect storm brewing in Horn of Africa
¤ Media With No Guts, No Grace
¤ Sadly, the Plural of "Fiasco" Requires No "E"
¤ Israel extends bombing of Lebanon
¤ For Israel, Innocent Civilians Are Fair Game
¤ Failed Mexican Presidential Candidate Sets up Protest Camp
¤ US Auditor Lists Failures in Rebuilding of Iraq
¤ 9/11 Tapes Expose Flaws in Military Chiefs' Testimony
¤ Dogging the Wag
¤ The Heat
¤ Autopsy: No Arabs on Flight 77
¤ State Department Condemns Rice Cartoons
¤ Iraq Resistance Gains Steam
¤ G.I.'s Say Officers Ordered Killing of Young Iraqi Men
¤ Mexico vote protests cripple capital
¤ Oil tops $76 as storm heads toward US Gulf
¤ Chávez ends world tour with pledge to poor
¤ US backs Ethiopia's invasion to save Somalia from Islam
¤ Proof the Commission Didn't Do Its Job
¤ It's about annexation, stupid!
¤ Israel is waging a war of ethnic "cleaning"
¤ "It is US hypocrisy, at its worst"
¤ Israel struggles "to compete" w/ dead babies
¤ UN Dithering on Qana and Meaningless Resolutions
¤ Israel: Blackmailing the world

Zimbabwe: White Lies, Black Victims
Posted: Thursday, August 3, 2006

By Rosemary Ekosso, ekosso.com

I remember in my boarding school Fatima House sang a song during the school feast celebrations. It was called Zimbabwe is Free. It was a rousing tune with a resonating bass element. I loved it. My father had told me all about Rhodesia changing hands when I was not yet ten years old, and we were happy that one more "racist bastion" as Radio Cameroon used to call them at the time, had crumbled into dust.

And all was well. Then in 2002, the Zimbabwean Land Issue became news.

But what really happened in Zimbabwe? It is a story like that of the rape of Lebanon we see today, told by the Western media for their willingly brainwashed audiences. Mugabe is a fairly corrupt leader who is clinging to power. That cannot be denied. But when did his tyranny come to light? In 2002? And what choices did he actually have in the land business?

Let us go back in time. Under British colonial rule, the black owners of the land were restricted to tribal reserves. You can find a very good paper on on this and violence in Zimbabwe here.

In 1930, the Land Apportionment Act restricted access of black people to land. In the years that followed, there was increased pressure on the land, and of course the Africans were blamed for what was inaccurately and condescendingly referred to as "slash and burn" cultivation. That this method of farming was entirely appropriate in situations where there was enough land for shifting cultivation must have escaped the notice of colonial observers.

The settlers kept coming in, rising to 140.000 in 1945. But there were 4 million Africans. The Europeans decided that Africans kept livestock for the wrong reasons: "status and prestige". So they decided to de-stock the land and herd the "natives" into more reserves to create more space for themselves. From 1946 to 1979, more than a million head of cattle were disposed of. By disposed of, I mean killed or stolen by white farmers.

Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. Part of the talks/negotiations leading up to independence included the Lancaster House Agreement, which provided that from 1980 to 1990, a fund provided by Britain would be used to buy land from those white settlers who could not, in effect, stand being ruled by black Zimbabweans. Before that, less than 1% of the population, being the whites, owned 70% of the land. What the agreement actually did was protect white farm owners from redistribution of their land and put off possible nationalization for ten years. It was one of the conditions of Zimbabwe being granted (that's the right term) independence.

In 1981, the Brits pledged more that 630 million pounds in aid for the land reforms. London now claims to have contributed £44m, but Timothy Stamp, Zimbabwe's finance minister, says it was only £17m.

In 1985, the Land Acquisition Act was enacted, against staunch white opposition. The act was gave the Zimbabwean government first refusal, as it were, over land to be ceded by whites, which it would then purchase for the landless. But the white farmers did not want to sell their land and the Zimbabwean government did not have the money to buy. So what happened to the promised British aid, eh?

According to Human Rights Watch and others, 4.500 large-scale commercial farmers still held 28 percent of the total land at the time the fast track program was instituted after 2000; meanwhile, more than one million black families eked out an existence in overcrowded, arid "communal areas". Native reserves, they mean.

Then the veterans of the war of liberation said they wanted land. Then Messrs. IMF and World Bank came in with a Structural Adjustment package. Then there was a drought from 1990 to 1993. Mugabe was in trouble. The grassroots needed land, and the white people were not willing to share. He took the land from the white people and gave it to the black ones.

But which black ones? That is the purported source of all the noise you hear today.

Despite their pious claims, Britain and the others are not angry because Mugabe is a corrupt dictator. They sponsor corrupt dictators when it suits them. They are not angry because ordinary Zimbabweans are suffering under Mugabe. They don't care about ordinary Zimbabweans. They were quite happy to herd them into reserves when it suited them.

No, what they care about is the expropriation of white farmers. They express indignation at Mugabe's cronies acquiring the land. That is a bad thing, of course. I myself come from an area where government or government-affiliated bigwigs are buying up all the prime sea-front locations because they can afford them. But in the case of Zimbabwe only 0.3% of people settled on land have acquired it through undue influence or corruption. So 99.7% of Zimbabweans got their land fair and square. With Enron and cash-for-peerages scandals, who are these people to talk about corruption? Besides, the government has investigated and found that some four hundred people got their hands on land by dishonest means. It has investigated.

So we agree that Mugabe is doing a BAD THING. The bad thing is not, however, the fact that he has taken land that should go to poor landless Zimbabweans and given it to his friends. The bad thing is that he has taken the land from white people.

Now, don't get me wrong. For some of those white farmers, Zimbabwe is their country. It is their motherland. There have been great personal tragedies as a result of the land expropriation. People have lost what they worked for over decades.

But.

Let them taste the pain of loss too. What did they think they were doing when they took the land of Africans in the first place? When the land was seized from the Africans and given to their parents and grandparents, why did they not say: "Oh no, don't do that, it's not cricket"? What did they think? That Africans do not have strong feelings of attachment to land, being only a kind of speaking ape? What did they think when they had armies of black servants to cater to their every whim in addition to farming the land that had been stolen from them, and being forced to sow fields they would never reap? Did they ever feel pain for the Africans? Did they acknowledge the fundamental injustice of the system? When Mugabe began to centralize power and silence political enemies, did they stand up and tell him to stop?

No. They had their beasts of burden. That is all they needed. Now they tell you that they inherited the land, and they were not the ones who stole it. But they knew it was stolen. And when you see the child of a man from whom your father stole wallowing in mud, what should be the nice human reaction?

Hm?

Why is it that the white man's pain is always greater than that of the black man?
They have trotted out the spectre of Africans who do not know how to run the huge farms: "You know, er, just leave the farms with us, because we're better at running them and you guys are hopeless, everyone knows". The farms have lost some revenue. But is it because the Africans have no talent for farming? No. Here's a quote I like:

"Temporary economic dislocation is an unavoidable byproduct of land reform, but the only path to genuine and lasting progress is through land redistribution. There can be nothing efficient about a gross concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, while millions are condemned to lives of hopeless despair and poverty. No mainstream journalist has ever described the grotesque inequality of the situation inherited from colonialism and what this meant for those on the bottom."

You can read the whole article here. I have also just found out that after the reforms, cereal planted actually rose by at least 9%, according to the World Food Programme. So what are those racist lies about how Africans cannot work the farms?

But why were the white people living in a dream world where they thought they'd always own the farms and Africans would only work for them? The Africans will learn one day, as they have often learnt. The hard way.

Another aspect of this disinformation concerns what has actually happened to bring the Zimbabwean economy to its knees. It is true that a there is degree of corruption in Zimbabwe. It is true that the farms do not contribute as much as they did in terms of employment and revenue. Actually, that's not even true. Smaller, less mechanised farms mean more labour-intensive methods and increased employment.

But it is no less true that there has been a severe drought in Zimbabwe and all of Southern Africa. That is what has brought down grain production. Plus the IMF, plus the World Bank. Plus the media telling lies about Zimbabwe.

The veterans of the war of liberation were pressing for compensation. Mugabe paid up. He had no choice. It precipitated a financial crisis in 1997, but Mugabe at least had neutralized a looming threat to his power. Do George Bush and Tony Blair not neutralize looming threats to their power?

Mugabe has in fact, settled quite a few people on land. I am not saying his cronies have not got their fat, be-ringed fingers on some prime land. But so have at least 134.000 other people, who were settled between 2000 and 2002. So let's not exaggerate here. And no, they were not all from ZANU-PF, Mugabe's party. People from MDC, the opposition party, also got land.

Nor is it less true that the white world has decided to punish Mugabe for daring to take land from white farmers. But this is a long and different story. I will deal with it one day in an article on puppet masters.

This article is too long already, so I'll stop here. But I have said this before, and I'll say it again: we should not believe all the lies we read.

Reprinted with permission from:
www.ekosso.com/2006/08/i_remember_in_m.html

August 3, 2006 News
Posted: Thursday, August 3, 2006

¤ Why Bush's Stupidity Is a Threat
¤ US will not stop operation in Lebanon
¤ The Bush Administration's Iran-Friendly Foreign Policy
¤ A Darkness unto Nations
¤ Israel's latest invasion of Lebanon and Western Culpability
¤ The Knife in the Back
¤ The Prussian Monarchy Stuff
¤ The Hiroshima Myth
¤ War At Home: The Seattle Shooting
¤ Is US the World's Policeman or an Empire?
¤ Israel's Dependency on the Drug of Militarism
¤ The Tortured Language of War
¤ Lebanese Red Cross Repeatedly Targeted
¤ Mother of Only Surviving Child in Qana Attack Recounts Ordeal to CIHAN
¤ The Tortured Language of War
¤ Bomb Them to Gain Their Support?
¤ Chris Hedges: Mutually Assured Destruction in the Middle East
¤ 'Oops, Sorry' Doesn't Let Israel Off the Hook
¤ Ongoing violence kills 53 people in Iraq
¤ Haditha evidence implicates Marines
¤ Israel starts 30km push in Lebanon
¤ Israel ready for massive invasion
¤ President installs arch foe as Ukrainian PM
¤ In a Miami bunker, an emergency plan is dusted off
¤ 'America and the seven deadly sins'
¤ 12 dead in Iraq soccer blast
¤ Heat, humidity combine to torture East
¤ IDF can stay in Lebanon
¤ US court overturns convictions in Enron case

America will attack Iran, Syria in October: Gul
Posted: Wednesday, August 2, 2006

RAWALPINDI: The former chief of ISI, Maj. Gen (R) Hameed Gul has "predicted" that America would definitely attack Iran and Syria simultaneously in October.
He was talking after attending the Hamdard Majlis Shoora, Tuesday evening. He also condemned the lackluster and weak reaction of Pakistan and Islamic bloc about Israel’s attack of Lebanon.

Analyzing the current war scenario he observed that war has both political and strategic factors and despite "using" Israel, America has lost the war in Lebanon, where masses have united against the recent Israeli onslaught, and would have been more formidable if the generals of Saddam had not sold out to American dollars.

He analyzed that Israel would soon be "forced" to stop its land strikes but would continue its horrific and heinous air strikes against Lebanon, converting it to ruins.

He also "predicted" that after Iran and Syria, Saudi Arabia would also meet the same fate, followed by Pakistan.
Full Article : paktribune.com

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