Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea's gulag
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea's gulag: "A series of shocking personal testimonies is now shedding light on Camp 22 - one of the country's most horrific secrets
Antony Barnett
Sunday February 1, 2004
The Observer
In the remote north-eastern corner of North Korea, close to the border of Russia and China, is Haengyong. Hidden away in the mountains, this remote town is home to Camp 22 - North Korea's largest concentration camp, where thousands of men, women and children accused of political crimes are held.
Now, it is claimed, it is also where thousands die each year and where prison guards stamp on the necks of babies born to prisoners to kill them.
Article continues at site above....
Tug of war for Taiwan
The visits by three Taiwanese opposition leaders to mainland China this year illustrate the new policy of President Hu Jintao , which is a marked departure from that of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin .
When Mr Jiang was China's leader, he wanted to impose a timetable for Taiwan's unification with the mainland, which tended to increase tension across the Taiwan Strait. Mr Hu's policy, however, is not to bring about political unification but merely to frustrate any attempt to bring about a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan, which already enjoys de facto independence.
This month Yok Yu-ming, the chairman of Taiwan's New Party, visited the mainland. That means the leaders of all three opposition parties - who together command a majority in the legislature - have been to Beijing and met Mr Hu, noted Xu Shiquan , vice-chairman of the National Taiwan Studies Society, during a recent meeting in Beijing. Professor Xu is a leading authority on Taiwan.
In effect, Beijing has forged an alliance with the majority of the elected representatives of the Taiwanese people.
Mr Hu's policy, in effect, means maintaining the status quo for the foreseeable future - also favoured by the United States and many people in Taiwan. This new stance was confirmed in January by State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan , who told a group of American scholars that the mainland was "patient" where Taiwan was concerned.
This turn of events is to be welcomed. In fact, even the recently passed Anti-Secession Law reflects this stance. Beijing had previously talked of passing a Reunification Law, which would have implied a need to change the status quo to bring about reunification. An Anti-Secession Law, however, implies opposition to any move by Taiwan to seek de jure independence by changing the status quo.
The Anti-Secession Law was widely criticised in the west because it mandates the use of "non-peaceful means" if Taiwan should move towards independence. However, Professor Xu explained that the law has brought "clarity" to the situation. Before its passage, some people in Taiwan called the mainland a "paper tiger", saying it would never carry out its threats to use military force regardless of what provocative action Taiwan took. But now, he said, because the law has been enacted, the government would have no choice but to use force if Taiwan declared independence. The Anti-Secession Law enjoyed wide support on the mainland, Professor Xu said.
Has Mr Hu actually managed to find a formula that will prevent pro-independence politicians in Taiwan from moving towards independence? One sign may be something that Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian said recently.
Mr Chen, who will serve as president until 2008, said he would be unable to bring about Taiwan's formal independence in the next three years. After all, he said, his predecessor Lee Teng-hui was president for 12 years and had failed to achieve independence.
But Mr Chen is a wily politician. It is likely that he will try, in his remaining years, to strengthen the sense of Taiwanese identity. Already, the government is asking schools to teach Chinese history as the history of a foreign country, and Chinese culture as foreign culture.
Unless there are many more exchanges between Taiwan and the mainland, it is difficult to imagine the island's residents thinking of themselves as Chinese, rather than as Taiwanese, in the future.
This tug of war for the hearts and minds of the people of Taiwan is likely to continue for many years. For the foreseeable future, it appears that Taiwan's status will remain in never-never land: not quite a fully independent country but also very definitely not a part of the People's Republic of China.
Frank Ching is a Hong Kong-based writer and commentator.
Published in the South China Morning Post. Copyright © 2005. All rights reserved. --
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"And this is why they did it..." (The London bombing)
Friday, July 15, 2005
The following article from a British newspaper was forwarded to the US office of Turkish World Outreach:
The Times, Friday, July 08, 2005 (pg. 25)
And this is why they did it,by Amir Taheri
There is no way to reason with the terrorists, but the thinking behind their actions is perfectly clear
THE FIRST QUESTION that comes to mind is: what took them so long? The answer may be that in the past four years the British authorities have succeeded in preventing attacks on a number of occasions. David Blunkett, who was then Home Secretary, was often mocked for suggesting that this was the case.
<>It may take some time before the full identity of the attackers is established. But the ideology that motivates them, the networks that sustain them and the groups that finance them are all too well known.
Moments after yesterday’s attacks my telephone was buzzing with requests for interviews with one recurring question: but what do they want? That reminded me of Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film-maker, who was shot by an Islamist assassin on his way to work in Amsterdam last November.
According to witnesses, Van Gogh begged for mercy and tried to reason with his assailant. "Surely we can discuss this," he kept saying as the shots kept coming. "Let us talk it over."
<>Van Gogh, who had angered Islamists with his documentary about the mistreatment of women in Islam, was reacting like BBC reporters did yesterday, assuming that the man who was killing him may have some reasonable demands which could be discussed in a calm, democratic atmosphere. <>
But sorry, old chaps, you are dealing with an enemy that does not want anything specific, and cannot be talked back into reason through anger management or round-table discussions. Or, rather, this enemy does want something specific: to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make round the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it his divine duty to kill you.
The ideological soil in which alQaeda, and the many groups using its brand name, grow was described by one of its original masterminds, the Pakistani Abul-Ala al-Maudoodi more than 40 years ago. It goes something like this: when God created mankind He made all their bodily needs and movements subject to inescapable biological rules but decided to leave their spiritual, social and political needs and movements largely subject to their will. Soon, however, it became clear that Man cannot run his affairs the way God wants. So God started sending prophets to warn man and try to goad him on to the right path. A total of 128,000 prophets were sent, including Moses and Jesus. They all failed. Finally, God sent Muhammad as the last of His prophets and the bearer of His ultimate message, Islam. With the advent of Islam all previous religions were "abrogated" (mansukh), and their followers regarded as "infidel"
(kuffar). The aim of all good Muslims, therefore, is to cO convert humanity to Islam, which regulates Man’s spiritual, economic, political and social moves to the last detail.
<>But what if non-Muslims refuse to take the right path? Here answers diverge. Some believe that the answer is dialogue and argument until followers of the "abrogated faiths" recognise their error and agree to be saved by converting to Islam. This is the view of most of the imams preaching in the mosques in the West. But others, including Osama bin Laden, a disciple of al-Maudoodi, believe that the Western-dominated world is too mired in corruption to hear any argument, and must be shocked into conversion through spectacular ghazavat (raids) of the kind we saw in New York and Washington in 2001, in Madrid last year, and now in London. <>
That yesterday’s attack was intended as a ghazava was confirmed in a statement by the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe, an Islamist group that claimed responsibility for yesterday’s atrocity. It said "We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid (ghazava) in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid." Those who carry out these missions are the ghazis, the highest of all Islamic distinctions just below that of the shahid or martyr. A ghazi who also becomes a shahid will be doubly meritorious. <>
There are many Muslims who believe that the idea that all other faiths have been "abrogated" and that the whole of mankind should be united under the banner of Islam must be dropped as a dangerous anachronism.
But to the Islamist those Muslims who think like that are themselves regarded as lapsed, and deserving of death.
It is, of course, possible, as many in the West love to do, to ignore the strategic goal of the Islamists altogether and focus only on their tactical goals. These goals are well known and include driving the "Cross-worshippers" (Christian powers) out of the Muslim world, wiping Israel off the map of the Middle East, and replacing the governments of all Muslim countries with truly Islamic regimes like the one created by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran and by the Taleban in Afghanistan.
How to achieve those objectives has been the subject of much debate in Islamist circles throughout the world, including in London, since 9/11.
Bin Laden has consistently argued in favour of further ghazavat inside the West. He firmly believes that the West is too cowardly to fight back and, if terrorised in a big way, will do "what it must do". That view was strengthened last year when al-Qaeda changed the Spanish Government with its deadly attack in Madrid. At the time bin Laden used his "Madrid victory" to call on other European countries to distance themselves from the United States or face similar "punishment".
Bin Laden’s view has been challenged by his supposed No 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who insists that the Islamists should first win the war inside several vulnerable Muslim countries, notably Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Until yesterday it seemed that al-Zawahiri was winning the argument, especially by heating things up in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yesterday, the bin Laden doctrine struck back in London.
<>(The author is an Iranian commentator on Middle Eastern affairs)
What Consumers -- and Retailers -- Should Know about Dynamic Pricing - Knowledge@Wharton
What Consumers -- and Retailers -- Should Know about Dynamic Pricing - Knowledge@Wharton:
"A study released in June by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania was provocatively titled, 'Open to Exploitation: American Shoppers Online and Offline.' It concluded that American consumers are 'vulnerable to subtle forms of exploitation' by marketers.
Much of the study, which was based on a telephone survey of 1,500 adults, focused on privacy issues dealing with the collection of information about consumers. But it also examined people's knowledge of pricing. It found, for example, that 64% of respondents who had recently used the Internet did not know that it is legal 'for an online store to charge different people different prices at the same time of day.' In addition, 71% did not know that it is legal for bricks-and-mortar stores to do the same thing."
A ChristianityToday.com Page from Chuck
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Chuck (chuckzmail@johnstonz.net) thought this page might interest you:
To Judge, or Not to Judge - Christianity Today Magazine
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/007/22.52.html
Chuck's personal message for you:
I'm baaaack. Funny how blogging totally slipped my mind while traveling in the USA and connecting with family and friends this Summer. (Not-so-good and infrequent internet connections contributed to the situation, too.)
But....I'm back! If you've given up on checking chuckzBlog, give it another try!
Chuck
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