Farewell 2006!

The major news item of 2006 is the defeat of the United States in Iraq, now clear for all to see, and of Israel in Lebanon, shattering the invincibility of the Zionist state and producing a new Arab hero, Hassan Nasrallah.

Let's have a look at the major news items in each month:

January: Hamas wins a majority in Palestinian Legislative Council elections. The U.S. and the E.U., hypocritical champions of democracy, reject the outcome. Sharon suffers a debilitating stroke but lives out the year in a coma.

February: The golden dome of the Askariya mosque in Samarra, one of Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines, is destroyed by a bomb explosion, leading to unprecedented sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia.

March: Slobodan Milosevic dies in his cell at the International Court in The Hague, ending the life of the architect of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia.

April: Chinese President Hu Jintao visits the U.S. but is more cordially received by Bill Gates on the West Coast than by George Bush on the East Coast.

May: The British Labor Party suffers a heavy defeat in local elections, indicating profound disapproval for Bush's poodle, Premier Tony Blair.

June: Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi is killed by coalition forces in Iraq, but the escalation of violence does not subside.

July: Israel launches war on Lebanon, but is defeated by Hezbollah. The so-called invincibility of Israel is shattered and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah becomes a hero in the Muslim world.

August: A United Nations Security Council deadline set on August 31 for Iran to stop enriching uranium passes without Iran complying. There is no proof Iran is aiming to build a nuclear weapon.

September: A military coup in Thailand deposes Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and in China the party chief of Shanghai Chen Liangyu is sacked for corruption.

October: North Korea tests a nuclear bomb becoming a declared nuclear power in an exclusive club. The UN Security Council imposes sanctions including a ban on luxury exports. The six party talks resume in December, but are adjourned after five days without any progress.

November: In the U.S. midterm elections, Republicans lose the House and the Senate. Voters present a clear mandate: “End the war! Get out of Iraq!”. Bush sacks Donald Rumsfeld. In a further setback to Washington, Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega are re-elected in Venezuela and Nicaragua, following in the footsteps earlier this year of Chile's Michelle Bachelet and Bolivia's Evo Morales.

December: Saddam Hussein is executed in Baghdad, but has never been convicted for his worst crimes, the invasions of Iran and Kuwait. The UN Security Council imposes sanctions on Iran because the country refuses to stop its uranium enrichment program. Intended to pressure Iran, they will no doubt have the opposite effect. The resolution may have opened the way for an American invasion.

Notable persons who passed away this year include adventurer Heinrich Harrer, journalist Anna Politkovskaya and singers Wilson Pickett, James Brown and Marishka Veres. The world was also left a bit cleaner by the disappearance of a few villains: Slobodan Milosevic, Pik Botha, Augusto Pinochet and Saddam Hussein.

Bye bye 2006, here comes 2007!

Hanged for wrong reason

Saddam Hussein was not allowed to see the first light of 2007. Rightly so, albeit for the wrong reasons. Massacring 148 villagers may very well be a crime punishable by death, but it was certainly not Saddam's worst crime. He was never convicted, and thus never punished, for the crimes of aggression against Iran and Kuwait, which caused the deaths of more than a million people.

During his trail and up to his execution he remained in U.S. custody, in the hands of the occupying power which invaded Iraq based on lies and false premises. If Saddam deserves to face the hangman's noose, so do the Commanders-in-Chief of the invading forces, Bush and Blair.

Many ministers of European countries condemned the execution because they are against the death penalty. The death penalty should not be carried out for ordinary murder like in the U.S., but crimes against peace, crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity deserve the highest penalty.

The gold medal for hypocrisy should perhaps go the Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, who declared that Saddam deserved the death penalty, but that it shouldn't be carried out. Twisted logic – in that case, why impose the death penalty at all?

The year 2007 will be free of Saddam the war criminal, but other war criminals remain heads of state or government. In a world where justice reigns, the hangman would not be without a job.

Imperial copyright

An updated book of memoirs by China's last emperor Pu Yi has been published by the Qunzhong Publishing House. It is an expanded version of a book originally published in 1964. The Beijing Supreme People's Court acknowledged that Pu Yi was the copyright owner, although as all such celebrities, he certainly didn't write the book himself.

Now his brother Pu Ren says that Qunzhong Publishing House should have asked permission to republish an expanded version of the book. This is clearly an imperial misuse of copyright. Even if we recognize the copyright of Pu Yi, what has his brother got to do with it? Is he styling himself as an imperial heir to the Dragon Throne. In that case he should be put in jail for trying to restore the empire.

Pu Yi and his last wife are long dead. He has no surviving children. Why should a brother profit from the publishing of Pu Yi's book? The brother also said the book violated Pu Yi's privacy because it described the infidelity of his former wife Wan Rong. In that case, anybody who ever wrote a word about Monica Lewinsky should also be prosecuted for violating Bill Clinton's privacy. Celebrities forfeit part of their privacy by being, well... celebrities. They can always chose to remain in obscurity, but then that they will miss out on the glamor and the glitter.

Copyright of published materials should be abolished altogether and replaced by the GPL-license, allowing anyone to reproduce the work and add to it, provided the original author is recognized. Journalists and authors are paid by their newspaper or publishing house, which make money by selling the originals. Why would they have to make even more money from re-publishing?

Do away with copyright and introduce the freedom to publish, the freedom of copyleft or the right to copy.

Mandriva 2007

Another year, another passage. I am switching operating systems on my PC. After I bought a Lenovo desktop in September 2005, I installed Linspire 5-0, rather by default because installation of other flavors of Linux failed for one reason or another, Fedora Core, SUSE, Ubuntu all failed. Overall I am satisfied with Linspire. It served me well and the only thing that ever broke occasionally was the Click 'n Run (CNR) software installation facility, but after a bit of tinkering I managed to get it working again.

CNR was a paying service and became free this year, but it also became less useful. The latest addition to the CNR warehouse dates from August. Many new programs and upgrades have become available in the meantime. A second reason to leave Linspire behind and move on is that it still does not have a 64-bit OS. I can't wait any longer to take advantage of my 64-bit PC. Mandriva 2007 got very favorable reviews on the DistroWatch website, so I decided to give it a try. Becoming a member of the Mandriva Club doesn't come cheap but it gives you the possibility to download the Powerpack and take advantage of club offers.

As I will be reformatting my hard disk, i will also install a few other Linux flavors to experiment with: Fedora Core 6, Ubuntu 6.10, PcLinuxOS 0.93a and the experimental Elive 0.5 RL2.

With Internet traffic slowing to a crawl due to the cable break south of Taiwan and the holiday week between Christmas and New Year there is no better time to install a new operating system.

It's a breakdown!

This definitely shouldn't have happened. Internet traffic is seriously disrupted after an earthquake south of Taiwan damaged undersea fiber optic cables. The CNN website and many other websites in the U.S. and Europe were not accessible for most of the day or even not at all. Sites in China were accessible, because to reach them traffic is not routed through undersea cables.

The Internet came into existence to prevent just such a breakdown in (military) communications. When one link breaks down, traffic would be routed through other links and communications would not be interrupted. In theory. What happened today proves that the Internet is still vulnerable. On a virtual level there are a hundred routes from A to B, but if 99 out the 100 routes go through one fat cable on the physical level and that fatty goes down, the result is a communications breakdown.

A cable cut as a result of an earthquake or enemy action can paralyze Internet traffic around the world. Something has to be done about it. Who would have thought this could still happen in the dying days of 2006?

Happy birthday Chairman!

Today is the 113th anniversary of the birth of Chairman Mao Zedong. Like the 30th anniversary of his death this past September 9, it passed almost unnoticed in China. Mao still gazes from his portrait on the Gate of Heavenly Peace to the square. There are still tens, if not hundreds of Mao statues in China.

But the current leadership of the Communist Party does not want to launch commemorative activities for fear of opening a debate on Mao's merits and demerits. Developing the economy and making money is its goal, not debating the past.

Foreign news media do give it a try, but evaluating Mao in a newspaper story is an impossible task. You can formulate your conclusion, but there's not enough space to prove your point.

Veteran journalist John Roderick, who met Mao in 1946 in Yan'an, poses the question whether Mao was “a monster or an authentic Chinese hero”? (CNN: Mao Zedong: Monster or hero?) But he doesn't answer his own question, although he points to another basic question that should be answered. “Atrocities were committed in his name”. Sure, but does that make the man himself responsible? Food for thought.

There is not enough space for arguments here, but I can at least give you my answer to the questions: Yes, Mao was a Chinese hero, not a monster and No, he was not responsible for the atrocities committed in his name.

The Revolution is not a dinner party, it cannot be so refined... 

A piece of torn paper

U.N. Security Council resolutions indeed look more and more like pieces of torn paper, fig leafs to justify imperial aggression. Far from embodying the will of the international community, the Security Council is acting as the talking shop of the White House's war cabinet.

The Security Council decided 'unanimously' to impose sanctions on Iran. Because in the distorted imagination of the neocons, Iran is building the bomb. No proof needed, just the words – the lies – of the neocons. Russia, China and France put up some weak opposition, but in the end - again - followed Uncle Sam. The ten non-permanent members didn't dare to go against the Five Big Brothers.

WMD in Saddam's Iraq – none; collaboration with Al Qaeda – none; nuclear weapons in Iran – none. Once again a UN Security Council resolution is paving the way for the U.S. to invade a sovereign UN member country.

The Security Council is well on the way to become irrelevant. Unjust resolutions can achieve nothing because the people will oppose them. They achieve the opposite of what was intended. Shame on the 'diplomats'. Can't they come up with something that perhaps may achieve its intended purpose?

Israel wants to create conditions conducive to complete the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. To be able to do that, Iran has to be wiped of the map. Moreover, Iran is the principal obstacle to Western imperial ambitions in the Middle East.

As David Lindorff wrote on the CounterPunch website, “an attack on Iran would be an unmitigated disaster” and “there is no way the U.S. could hope to conquer Iran” (Crime of the Century). And again, the war mongers in Washington will try the unthinkable. 

So this is Christmas...

"A very merry Christmas, and a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear
War is over, if you want it, war is over, now..."
(John Lennon, part of the lyrics of 'Happy X Mas')

Well, John, unfortunately, war ain't over yet... Baghdad, Ramadi, Kandahar, Bethlehem...

And so Bush, the war criminal, visited the wounded soldiers... Who does he think is responsible for their lost legs and bandaged heads, their weeping wifes, girlfriends, sons and daughters? And did he ever visit the morgues in Baghdad, the dead and wounded Iraqis who have been slaughtered as a result of the American invasion?

And let's not forget Bethlehem! Israel's Wall of Apartheid is strangling Bethlehem, 65% of its inhabitants are unemployed and its employees have not been paid for four months. And nobody cares... The Catholics and the Pope celebrate Jesus, while the people of Bethlehem suffer under Zionist occupation.

The Archbishop of Canterbury did accuse Bush and Blair of endangering the lives of thousands of Christians in the Middle East (The Times: Christians suffer for Iraq, says archbishop). But did he offer a solution? Did he call for a boycott of Israel?

Bethlehem 2002. A Palestinian pregnant woman was trying to get to the hospital, bleeding heavily on the back seat of a car. An Israeli soldier looked at the blood and laughed! (The Independent: 'What would happen if the Virgin Mary came to Bethlehem today?') Since then 36 babies have died because their mothers were detained during labor at Israeli checkpoints. And some idiots still do not let us compare the Zionists to the Nazis...

Meanwhile, 'Christian' Bush signed a law to block U.S. aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government and Islamic Hamas is spending 50,000 dollars on Christmas decorations in Bethlehem. The Hamas Minister of Finance wished “our Christian brothers a happy Christmas”.

Israel (let's say this gently at Christmas time) must be dissolved and replaced by the People's Republic of Palestine, where Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and atheists can live in peace.

Will Bush regret it?

The Sunni Mujahideen Shura Council of Iraq has offered the U.S. forces safe withdrawal from Iraq within a month. The U.S. has two weeks to reply to the offer. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi added: “Obey our orders or regret it”.

Bush will of course reject it, because he doesn't talk to 'terrorists'. The war, the occupation, the insurgency, the slaughter and the bloodletting will continue.

After tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands more have died, in the end the U.S. will still be defeated. And everybody will regret the U.S. didn't get out earlier. In March 2003, peace loving people told Bush not to invade, and look what a mess he made. Now they tell him to get out, and he won't listen.

Republican Senator Gordon Smith, who initially voted for the war and now realizes his mistake, says the U.S. has the choice between 'cutting and running' and 'cutting and walking'. The second option involves the expenditure of more money and lives.

Maybe Bush will not regret it, but everybody else will. 

Who is to 'get serious'?

After five days of talking (mostly past each other) the six parties called it quits without even a joint statement or a date for the resumption of the talks. It is clear the Six Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear program are achieving nothing, except perhaps a better understanding between the U.S. and China, and again perhaps that is not such a bad thing.

But the talks are certainly not leading to the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which is supposedly their aim.

U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill called on the North Koreans “to get serious”. But in fact it is the U.S. which has “to get serious”. At the end of the last phase in the talks in December 2005, the DPRK agreed in principle to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. But a few days later the U.S. began pushing other countries to freeze North Korean funds. For a year the DPRK refused to return to the negotiating table and in the meantime tested a nuclear weapon. During the past five days, the DPRK negotiators only wanted to talk finance, not nuclear arms.

By bringing up the so-called 'money problem', it is the U.S. which is deliberately undermining the talks. The result is that the DPRK can keep its bomb and make even more bombs in the meantime. And perhaps even conduct another test. It is the attitude of the U.S. which is not 'serious'. 

Packaging required

A producer of rice wine in Zhengzhou, China wanted to protest against the elaborate packaging of bottles on the occasion of holidays. In the culture of gift giving (and corruption), the packaging is sometimes as luxurious and costly as the content.

To protest against packaging, the Jixiang Ruyi Tobacco and Alcohol Company had planned a mass Christmas Eve nude run through the streets of Zhengzhou, offering the 284 prospective participants 10,000 yuan in cash and prices (around 1,000 euro). The streakers had to be under the age of 30 with 'healthy bodies' and 'regular features', Reuters reported.

But the police didn't like the idea of no packaging at all and prevented the run and the naked publicity of the liquor company.

In more secluded quarters, nudity is however becoming more accepted, as shown by the girl with the braille script written all over her body (see picture on the left). It is not known whether the blind were actually allowed to touch the script...

Apartheid in Palestine

My views on the Zionist occupation of Palestine are well known. I frequently compare the Zionists with the Nazis and the situation in Palestine with South African apartheid. Even former U.S. President Jimmy Carter now agrees with the latter in his latest book and has been lambasted by all the defenders of Zionist Israel, which includes all mainstream American publications.

Comparing Zionism with Nazism usually elicits opposition. It would be exaggerated and 'over the top'. Although both -isms are racist. Nazism is racism towards all non-Aryans, primarily Jews and gypsies. Zionism is racism towards all non-Jews, primarily Palestinians and Arabs. Zionists and Nazis both want to create more Lebensraum for their chosen people.

Today I had dinner with a retired Belgian journalist who has traveled extensively in the occupied territories, something which I unfortunately never had the occasion to do. I have no first hand knowledge of the Middle East, but I have read tens of books on the subject. My friend has himself written a few books on the situation in Palestine/Israel and confirmed that yes, Nazism and Zionism are not that far apart.

The truth is spreading, despite the Zionist clampdown on free speech.

Stupid Americans

Well, no, not all of them, but still a sizable proportion. A CNN opinion poll shows support for President Bush's management of the Iraq war has dropped to an all-time low of 28% (CNN: Poll: Approval for Iraq handling drops to new low).

The all-time low is great news, but it also means that 28% of Americans, more than a quarter of the population, are fundamentally stupid or worse, criminally insane. 6% said the strategy should remain the same, 'stay the course, guys'. How many Vietnams are needed before they will ever learn?

After all that happened in that once beautiful country of Babylon at the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris, how could anyone still support Bush's 'management' of the Iraq war? After reading the report of the 'bipartisan' Iraq Study Group, headed by Uncle Baker of the Bush family? Unless they are racist, war-mongering criminals who should be brought to justice?

Still, more than a quarter of all Americans support 'Bush in Babylon' (read the interesting book by Tariq Ali). 48% said victory was still possible in Iraq. Surely not an American victory? Is the U.S. winning in Iraq?

• George W. Bush: “Absolutely, we're winning”.
  
• 
  
• Robert Gates: “No, sir”.

Victory belongs to the Shia and Sunni insurgents who will drive the U.S. occupiers out of their country. For the first time, more than half of Americans disapprove of Bush's 'war on terrorism'. Maybe there is still hope for the sanity of the majority of Americans.

Bush is not going to be 'rushed into a decision' about what to do next in Iraq. Let some more Iraqis (and American soldiers) die while the war-criminal-in-chief makes up his mind...

Exit Rumsfeld, enter Bill Gates (oops, erh, I mean Bob Gates). (CNN: Gates: Failure in Iraq would 'haunt' U.S). “Failure in Iraq would endanger Americans for decades to come," he rambled when taking the oath as Secretary of Defense. Failure for sure, and Americans have only themselves to blame for allowing George W. to become president. In the final analysis though, it's about more than a lone Texas cowboy. It's about imperialism dropping a stone on its own foot. As, according to the Law of Imperialism, it is bound to do. Binding its own feet,... with Chinese characteristics. 

Gang of 8 in Beijing

One of the most high-profile U.S. government delegations visited Beijing this past week, headed by Treasury Secretary Henri Paulson and including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. In all, eight American ministry level officials. Their demand: revalue the yuan!

“Oh no, we won't”, the Americans heard the Chinese say, down from President Hu Jintao to Supreme Negotiator Madame Wu Yi and further down the ranks. The U.S. should know by now that pressuring the Chinese won't work. Sure, Beijing will let the market play a bigger role in determining the exchange rate of the currency. It will promote consumerism and better protect intellectual property rights. And the U.S. government promised to advise its people to save more money.

All promises which are rather difficult to fulfill by Christmas. The high-powered 'strategic economic dialogue' ended without tangible results.

And still, for both parties, Chinese and Americans, it was a win-win situation. Paulson can tell Congress that the Chinese listened to the American point-of-view. Th Chinese can tell their people they didn't give in to American pressure. And they can continue talking next year in June in Washington.

Better to talk than to make war. Let the markets sort out the economic problems. 

'You' beat Ahmadinejad

Time Magazine choose 'You' as Person of the Year, relegating Iranian President Ahmadinejad to an honorable second place. (Time: You)

I also would have chosen Ahmadinejad, because in the original list there was no 'You' only YouTube, which is a different matter altogether. While YouTube is part of the You revolution on the Internet, it's only one part, the video clip part.

Expression and collaboration on the Net is much wider than video clips: book reviews on Amazon, photos on Flickr, file sharing with BitTorrent, profiles on MySpace, blogs on BlogSpot, knowledge on Wikipedia, Linux on DistroWatch, podcasts, citizen journalists all over... 'You' are taking over control in the Information Age.

Yes, You made your mark on the world. Not statesmen and war criminals make this world turn around, the people do and that's you. The Net is empowering the people. Millions of people exchanging information, collaborating, getting to know each other, making friends, and yes, making love not war.

As Time noted "We are looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started." A new digital democracy is bubbling up. Warts and all. 

I think Time made a good choice. And yes, also a good second choice: Ahmadinejad.

Dump this U.S. lackey!

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for early Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections (Aljazeera: Abbas calls for early polls). He was elected in early 2005 and the Hamas government was elected in January this year. This 'cohabitation à la Française' didn't work. Fatah and Hamas have fundamentally different policies for attaining Palestinian statehood: two states or one state.

The Hamas government was democratically elected, but because it doesn't recognize the Zionist state of Israel the U.S. didn't like the result of the democratic process and supports a strongman who wants to sell out the rights of the Palestinian people. Abbas has no right to call early elections but instructed by his masters in Washington he is doing so to try to topple Hamas.

If elections take place, the outcome may be completely different: a Hamas president and a Hamas government. This will mean the end for the corrupt Fatah clique. Whether it tried to kill Prime Minister Ismail Haniya remains a mystery, but it might turn out to be the case.

The U.S. wants to break at all costs a strong Palestinian resistance against Israel. Condoleezza Rice is asking Congress for tens of millions of dollars to strengthen Abbas to ensure he emerges victorious. Washington is giving Abbas a poisoned pill as strong as polonium-210.

The Palestinians will know for whom to vote to safeguard their rights. 

Belgian banana split

The French-language TV station RTBF has aired a 'special news bulletin' claiming that the Flemish regional parliament had declared the independence of Flanders. The King fled Brussels to take refuge in Congo. The news bulletin showed flag-waving Flemish nationalists celebrating, while Belgian nationalists demonstrated in Brussels. Until half an hour later, it turned out it was all fake, an elaborate fictional cocktail to stimulate debate... (CNN: Fake 'Belgian split' TV sparks row)

Even more shocking than this 'docu-fiction' was the flood of comments from the Prime Minister down to thousands who believed what they saw on TV until being told the truth. "Irresponsible", "questionable" and "regrettable", a bad joke...

Journalists' organizations deplored the loss of journalistic ethics, the Royal Palace refrained to comment on a mere TV program and everybody hollered and jelled that it was shameful that such a program could be presented as 'news'.

Any TV-viewer could have found out it was a deliberate fiction within 10 seconds by zapping to the Flemish TV, because if it was true, it would certainly air live the glorious Flemish revolution. Well, it didn't. It broadcast a football match. But French speakers don't watch Flemish TV, not even for 10 seconds to check the veracity of their own broadcasts, so they were fooled until after half an hour a notice appeared at the bottom of the screen that it was all a fake.

The big 'scandal' lasted for a mere half an hour and everybody is up in arms. Luckily without the fire or the bullets. Everybody condemned the RTBF except Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang, because he wished it was true and Geert Lambert of Spirit because the guy has a sense of humor.

And that, in the end, was lacking the most, a sense of humor. Apparently the unity of the country is no laughing matter. The debate about the future of the country will have to be held one day. Because the docu-fiction showed in an exaggerated way what could have been or what the future perhaps still holds in store. But for now the news of the split of the country turned out to be a banana split. And many a journalist and politician slipped on the skin. 

50% for 2%, 1% for 50%

The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all household wealth and the poorer half own barely 1%.

That is the conclusion of a study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at the UN University.

Most studies look at income, not accumulated wealth. Of course, income inequality is also growing, but the study concludes that inequality is even sharper in wealth than in annual income. The study is based on data for the year 2000. In the meantime, wealth and income inequality has no doubt increased even more.

This trend will continue, but it cannot continue indefinitely. Karl Marx already noticed this trend more than a century ago. The dispossessed will ultimately overthrow the rich. Because half of the world's population cannot live and consume with only 1% of all the wealth, while 2% of the world's population is wasting half of its wealth.

Building socialism, the first stage of communism, on the basis of feudalist societies in Russia and China didn't work. But the forces of inequality and alienation are rising still further.

The future will show that Karl Marx was right after all. 

Wiped out or disappeared?

67 researchers from 30 countries attended a conference on the Holocaust in Teheran. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday the aim of the conference was “not to deny or confirm the Holocaust”, but “to create an opportunity for thinkers who cannot express their views freely”.

Nobody should deny the Holocaust because it is an undeniable historic fact. But it is equally true it has been blown up out of all proportion by the Zionists. The Nazi's killed 50 million people, out of which 6 million Jews. The killing of the Jews is remembered as the Holocaust and in some countries it is a crime to deny it. But what about the other 42 million victims of the Nazi's. There is no law to criminalize denial of the death of those victims.

The neocons and their lackeys at CNN are using the conference to prepare the ground for aggression against Iran. “Iran: Israel to be 'wiped out'”, CNN headlined on its main webpage, above a picture of Iranian President Ahmadinejad. (CNN: Iran: Israel will be 'wiped out'). Compare the wording of what Ahmadinejad supposedly said on the CNN and BBC websites:

• CNN: “Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out.” “Wiping a country out” has the connotation of driving its people in the sea or to the gas chambers.
  

• BBC: “Just as the USSR disappeared, soon the Zionist regime will disappear.” The Soviet regime indeed disappeared, but Russia didn't, nor did its inhabitants.
  

The fact that Ahmadinejad embraces ultra-orthodox Jews proves that he is not a Jew hater like Hitler or ex-Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who was also present at the conference. While the Iranian president sat next to the ultra-orthodox Jews of Neturei Karta and Jews Against Zionism, Duke sought the company of other Holocaust deniers.

The Holocaust of the Jews is used by the Zionists to justify another Holocaust, the Holocaust of the Palestinians. While the denial of the historical fact of the Holocaust of the Jews is a crime, Western leaders turn a blind eye to the ongoing Holocaust of the Palestinians.

Tony Blair called the conference “shocking beyond belief”. There are no reports however that anybody died as a result of the conference. What is truly “shocking beyond belief” is Bush and Blair's illegal invasion of Iraq.

There can only be peace in the Middle East after the Zionist regime of Israel “has disappeared”. 

China 5 years in the WTO

Yesterday, December 11, China marked the fifth anniversary of its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the end of a five-year transition period.

In the past five years all economic indicators showed a remarkable rise. GDP-growth, imports, exports, foreign direct investment, foreign exchange reserves and per capita income all increased substantially. GDP nearly doubled in the past five years and China became the world's fourth largest economy and third-largest trading nation. The average tariff rate has dropped from 15.3% to 9.9%.

As Cary Huang wrote in the South China Morning Post “China has gained more than it has lost and paid much less than had been feared five yeas ago”. Director Deng Hongbo of China's WTO Affairs Center commented that “no country has benefited more from WTO membership than has China” and that “WTO membership had changed China dramatically”.

But now that the transition period is over, China also faces still more pressure from its trading partners to open up even more and to make it ever easier for foreign companies to penetrate the Chinese market or to set up production facilities for export. Protectionism is rising especially in the U.S. The past five years better prepared Chinese businesses to face the global competition while it becomes more difficult to stop or reverse China's further integration into the globalized world economy.

It is time for the European Union and its member countries to grant China market economy status.