US-Controlled Iraq Near Collapse: Repeat Of 1979 Iran?

(Ali Younes’s article from the ALJAZERRA on 31 December 2019.)

US caught off guard as protesters storm Baghdad embassy: Hundreds of protesters breached the outer walls of the heavily fortified US embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, setting parts of its parameter on fire - an angry reaction to deadly US air raids days earlier against Kataib Hizbollah, an Iran-backed militia.

Most of the protesters, members of the paramilitary group Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces, or PMF), were clad in military fatigues. PMF is an umbrella organisation of several armed militia groups - including Kataib Hezbollah - funded and armed by Iran, but with formal links to the Iraqi armed forces. Shouting "Down, Down USA!", the crowd hurled rocks and water bottles and vandalised security cameras outside the embassy grounds.

The US said it launched the attacks on Sunday - killing at least 25 fighters - in Iraq and Syria in response to a rocket attack on Friday near Kirkuk, which killed an American civilian contractor - an assault Washington blamed on Kataib Hezbollah.

Dictator Zia Created Rohingya Problem

(Staff article from the MIZZIMA on 16 November 2017.)

Hours before her foreign minister arrives in Myanmar to discuss the Rohingya refugee issue, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has blamed the country's late military ruler Lt-Gen Ziaur Rahman for 'creating' the Rohingya problem. 

''Zia created this problem and now his party BNP and ally Jamaat e Islami want to fish in troubled waters,'' Hasina told the parliament.

The late military ruler Ziaur Rahman allegedly sent his military intelligence chief in 1977 to contact and promise Rohingya leaders of Bangladesh support for armed struggle to create an Islamic Republic of North Rakhine. Subsequent Rohingya armed activity provoked the Burmese military junta to unleash Operation Naga Min in February 1978 that led to the first refugee exodus.

''They want such trouble to continue so that our border region with Myanmar is disturbed. They think this will help them in elections,'' Hasina said. Her cabinet colleague Matia Chowdhury has recently blamed Pakistan for instigating the ARSA terrorists to launch serial attacks against Burmese security forces.

Joy To The World: United States Air Force’s Flash Mob

       (Repost of US Air Force Band's "Joy To The World" at Washington DC in December 2013.)

End of this post is the you tube video of United States Air Force Band performing “Joy To The World” as a Flash Mob at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. on December 3, 2013 welcoming the 2013 Christmas celebrations.

Following is the lyrics of that famous Christmas carol “Joy To The World”  I downloaded from the Wikipedia site.

Verse 1

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare him room,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Reliving 1973 Kachin Christmas Eve in New York City!

         (Repost of my very first Christmas Eve at the New York City in the year 2011.)

New York City's Skyline.

The Big Apple or the New York City is a wholesomely overwhelming town for a simple jungle boy like me. Especially the enormous Romanesque facades of century old skyscrapers. And it hurts my neck so much that I’ve stopped trying to look up at their distinctive tops.

Like many other wide-eyed tourists from the Australian fringe of the mighty empire of USA I ended up wandering on the wide avenues leading to the Times Square brightly lit and filled to the rims by the excited crowd on the Christmas Eve.

I walked and walked and walked aimlessly on the near-zero freezing but still unbelievably crowded Fifth Avenue and ended up, fortunately of course as I wasn’t really looking for it, right in front of a beautifully grand Gothic-revival church. I walked in and realized this is the historic St.Patrick’s Cathedral   and the traditional Midnight Mass was just a few hours away.

The First Miracle by Jeffrey Archer (1980)

            (Jeffery Archer's famous children story of the very first Christmas Eve in Year Zero.)

Tomorrow it would be A.D. 1, but nobody had told him. If anyone had, he wouldn’t have understood, because he thought it was the forty-third year of the reign of the emperor. And in any case, he had more important things on his mind.

His mother was still angry with him, and he had to admit that he’d been naughty that day, even by the standards of a normal thirteen-year-old. He hadn’t meant to drop the pitcher when she had sent him to the well for water. He had tried to explain to her that it wasn’t his fault he had tripped over a stone—that bit at least was true. What he hadn’t told her was that he had been chasing a stray dog at the time. And then there was that pomegranate: How was he to know that it was the last one, and that his father had taken a liking to them?

The young Roman was now dreading his father’s return and the possibility that he might be given another leathering. He could still recall the last one: He hadn’t been able to sit down for two days without being reminded of the pain, and the thin red scars hadn’t completely disappeared for three weeks.

He sat on the window ledge in a shaded corner of his room, trying to think of some way he could redeem himself in his mother’s eyes. He had spilled cooking oil all over his tunic and she had thrown him out of the kitchen. “Go and play outside,” she had snapped, but playing outside wasn’t much fun if you were only allowed to play by yourself. Pater had forbidden him to mix with the local boys.

First Princess Of Burma: Her Indian Children

(Namita Kholi’s article from the HINDUSTAN TIMES on 26 February 2017.)

(Burmese Princess Su Myat) Phaya Gyi, 26, had managed to hide her love affair with the “strapping young Maratha” Gopal Sawant for several months. It was only after the birth of their daughter, Tutu, that her parents learnt of the alliance. How could this be, they lamented – she, a princess, and he, a mere gatekeeper at the royal residence?

All stories start with a king. This one, however, must begin with a princess. A princess of ‘pure’ royal blood; born out of a marriage between a king and his step sister; a princess with kohl rimmed eyes, long, straight hair, and a heart full of sorrow and longing.

This princess was the eldest daughter of King Thibaw, the last king of Burma, who was exiled by the British in 1885. The royal family – the king, his two queens, and four daughters – were banished to the coastal town of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. Thibaw, or “Thiba Raja”( as the king was known locally) lived here for over three decades. He died in 1916, and was entombed with his junior queen.

By 1919, however, the royal family left for Myanmar, never to turn back. Except Princess Phaya, who pleaded (to British) to be sent back. Eventually, despite the royal family’s opposition, Phaya and her “half-caste” daughter, Tutu, were sent back to Ratnagiri, where the two lived for the rest of their lives. So why is the town having a hard time remembering its princess?

Joshua Wong (David) Vs Emperor Xi Jinping (Goliath)

 (Ben Machell’s article from the TIMES UK on 24 August 2019.)

“I Am Not A Hero”: For the past three months, the people of Hong Kong have faced off against the government of China. Pro-democracy protesters have been engaged in civil unrest on a sweeping scale, while in response Beijing has pushed back with ever increasing force.

So far, neither side has been willing to back down. Images of marches, rallies, hastily assembled barricades and increasingly tense clashes flood our news feeds every day. In June, a demonstration attended by almost two million people brought the city to a standstill. The following month, protesters stormed, occupied and tore apart the city’s legislative council offices.

A month ago, Hong Kong airport, one of the ­busiest in the world, was taken over and shut down by peaceful demonstrators who flooded the departure area and caused flights to be cancelled for two days. More recently, 1.7 million people braved thunderstorms to take to the streets.

The First Christians: Gentiles Converted By Peter

 (The Verses from The BIBLE GATEWAY’s Bible’s Acts 9, 10, and 11.)

(At the beginning there were only two types of people the Jews (chosen-ones) and the Gentiles (non-Jews). Many Jews, but not all Jews, were the original believers and followers of Lord Jesus of Nazareth. Well after Jesus’s death by crucifixion and his resurrection one of the apostles, Peter, famously baptised Roman Centurion Cornelius  and his Gentile household with Holy Spirit as guided by the Lord in Peter’s and Cornellius’s visions through Lord’s angels. The events were recorded in Bible’s Acts 9, 10, and 11.)

Acts 9, 32 As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. 34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. 35 All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Who Really Is Behind The Hong Kong Protests?

(Sara Flounder’s article from The WORKERS WORLD on 16 August 2019.)

The demonstrations in Hong Kong, now an open confrontation with the People’s Republic of China, have a global impact. What are the forces behind this movement? Who provides the funds and who stands to benefit? Protests in Hong Kong routinely carry the US flag and photos of Donald Trump.

The increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong are completely embraced and enthusiastically supported in the U.S. corporate media and all the imperialist political parties in the U.S. and Britain. This should be a danger sign to everyone fighting for change and for social progress. U.S. imperialism is never disinterested or neutral.

The disruptive actions involve helmeted and masked protesters using gasoline bombs, flaming bricks, arson and steel bars, random attacks on buses, and airport and mass transit shutdowns. Among the most provocative acts was an organized break-in at the Hong Kong legislature where “activists” vandalized the building and hung the British Union Jack flag.