Zizek on the One State REAL Solution

In the ABC religion and ethics section, Slavoj Zizek speaks about the fictitious two state solution, annunciating that which many of us already know: ‘If there is a lesson to be learned from the protracted negotiations, it is that the greatest obstacle to peace is what is offered as the realistic solution – the creation of two separate states.’

Zizek goes on to say:

Although neither side wants it (Israel would probably prefer the areas of the West Bank that it is ready to cede to become a part of Jordan, while the Palestinians consider the land that has fallen to Israel since 1967 to be theirs), the establishment of two states is somehow accepted as the only feasible solution, a position backed up by the embarrassing leak of Palestinian negotiation documents in January.

What both sides exclude as an impossible dream is the simplest and most obvious solution: a bi-national secular state, comprising all of Israel plus the occupied territories and Gaza. Many will dismiss this as a utopian dream, disqualified by the history of hatred and violence.

Zizek seems oblivious to Nutanyahoo’s plans to assimilate parts of the West Bank adjacent to Jordan in the fertile Jordan Valley for Israeli military purposes.

He might be cheered though by the latest statistics from an AWRAD Poll in August, 2010 surveying Palestinians across the Occupied Territories, where it was found ‘as much as 53 percent are willing to support, accept or consider the idea of one-joint state in which Israelis and Palestinians are equal citizens between the Jordanian River and the sea. In contrast, 47 percent find this unacceptable.’ It is the collaborator PA which clings to the false western colonialist plan for two states.

Zizek is on the mark with his conclusions:

But far from being a utopia, the bi-national state is already a reality: Israel and the West Bank are one state. The entire territory is under the de facto control of one sovereign power – Israel – and divided by internal borders. So let’s abolish the apartheid that exists and transform this land into a secular, democratic state.

Related Links

The Palestinian Question : the couple Symptom / Fetish : Islamo-Fascism, Christo-Fascism, Zionism : mieux vaut un désastre qu’un désêtre
Zionism and the Jewish Question

Palestine / Israel Links

My twitter notes from Ali Abunimah’s address today at McGill University, Montreal:

Boycotting, divestments & sanctions #BDS against Israel are not an ends in themselves, they are a means to legitimate Palestinian goals

End occupation, end all forms of discrimination against Palestinians, and end the racist exclusion of Palestinian refugees V @avinunu LIVE

When considering criticism of BDS academic boycott, Ali Abunimah draws attention to the awful destruction of schools by Israel in #Gaza

Israel went back again just 2 days ago and bombed Gaza University – so why are people critical of BDS silent on Israeli ‘academic boycott’?

‘It is the duty of civil society to respond to the Palestinian BDS appeal and act, especially when govts are complicit’ @avinunu LIVE

?’#BDS is an ethical, moral, justifiable means to bring pressure on Israel to change ‘ @avinunu Ali Abunimah LIVE

‘Israel has reached a crisis in the type of stories it can tell to cover up its crimes of apartheid’ @avinunu LIVE

The peace process has been an alibi, an excuse, for inaction, something for the gutless to hold onto’ @avinunu LIVE

Govts all worked to forestall, to prevent justice coming from the Goldstone Report, with the excuse being the ‘peace process’ @avinunu LIVE

“The ‘peace process’ is an utter hoax, has reached a dead end, what’s exposed more & more are realities of colonialism, apartheid & racism ”

Israel is 1 of the 4 most negatively viewed countries in the world, there’ve been significant increases in views from Americans @avinunu LIVE

Israel says this is cos of anti-semitism, but even Israeli diplomats quitting – ‘can no longer support Israeli foreign policy’ @avinunu LIVE

(diplomat made actual reference to this anti-semitism cover used by israel hasbarists)

Great historic change can happen and it can happen suddenly, people are still powerful, that when people decide they have had enough, nothing can stop them’ @avinunu LIVE

Billions of aid have gone to the west bank into building a repressive police pseudo state exactly of the kind people are rising up against in Tunisia and Egypt @avinunu LIVE

The IDF recognises that in the event of a popular uprising it will not be able to rely on the PA police state to repress it, and is searching for more collaborators – and that is a dead end – israel really has nowhere left to go @avinunu LIVE

Winning means bringing an end to apartheid, an end to colonial rule, giving everyone in Palestine/Israel a decent life, restitution and justice, refugees’ rights @avinunu LIVE

Jewish National Fund is primary means for land theft by zionists – JNF is one of the key institutions enforcing apartheid by denying Palestinians access to their land, locking it up for jews only @avinunu LIVE

Unchristian committee
Israel PM vows to keep troops on Jordan border
Israel postpones deportation of foreign workers’ children
The Palestine national football team has played its first ever competitive match at home in the West Bank. : It won the second leg of an Olympic qualifying game against Thailand but lost the tie in a penalty shootout.
#BDS: Jordan bans products made in Israeli settlements and in return exempts 2500 Israeli products from taxes
Palestinian leadership not seeking EU to replace U.S. in sponsoring talks
Zionist envy for the hearty intellectual and spiritual meal provided by Palestine solidarity poets.
How zioterrorist false flag ops helped build the apartheid Israeli state.
#BDS: Egyptian Youth Confront Amr Moussa: Israel is NOT a Country!
Palestinian family ordered to share East Jerusalem home with Israelis
How to face “incitement” allegation in Israel
Even after Palestinian independence, Netanyahu wants to maintain the occupation
Campaigners threaten to picket Israeli Music conference
Prevention Of Assimilation in the Holy Land
Eini to US Jewish leaders: Don’t underestimate BDS movement
Hamas dismayed at Hague statement on elections
Palestinians eke out living on dump recycling
Dirar Abu Seesi: Breaking the Israeli Gag
The European Union’s Blind Eye : How the EU ignores Israel’s failure to fulfil its obligations under EU agreements (updated and revised March 2011)
Dirar Abu Sisi, Palestinian In Ukraine, Allegedly Abducted By Israel
Asia to Gaza march will continue until Palestine is free: Mithiborwala
Danish minister fired in row on citizenship for Palestinians

Wikileaks Links

WikiLeaks: Cable identified 23 in Australia with Qaeda links – American diplomats last year proposed that 23 people in Australia be subjected to U.S. air travel curbs due to suspected contacts with Islamic militants in Yemen

Other Links

Hillary Clinton Calls Al Jazeera ‘Real News,’ Criticizes U.S. Media (VIDEO) – something the US can’t buy
Don’t Turn Off The Internet We Have A Revolution
Facebook tackled in ‘war against stupidity’ over real name policy
As King Targets Muslims, There Have Been Almost Twice As Many Plots Since 9/11 From Non-Muslim Terrorists

Since the attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, Muslims have been involved in 45 domestic terrorist plots. Meanwhile, non-Muslims have been involved in 80 terrorist plots.

In fact, right-wing extremist and white supremacist attacks plots alone outnumber plots by Muslims, with both groups being involved in 63 terror plots, 18 more plots than Muslim Americans have been involved in.

Facebook tackled in ‘war against stupidity’ over real name policy
U.S. funding tech firms that help Mideast dissidents evade government censors
Why the Government’s Unemployment Rate is Dangerously Deceptive — And the Dark Reality it Hides
New Poll Finds Tea Partiers Have More Racist Attitudes
Libya Live Blog – March 10
‘General Strike!’ Thousands Storm, Reoccupy Wisconsin Capitol in Response to Legislative Votes
You can increase your intelligence: 5 ways to maximize your cognitive potential – Check x 5
2010 Multi-state Survey on Race & Politics
British atheists Dawkins and Hitchens plan arrest for Pope Benedict XVI
Empire Means Never Having to Mean it’s Sorry by Cindy Sheehan
John Frum
What’s Wrong With The Passion? -A Review of Mel Gibson’s; The Passion of the Christ
Welcome to the Shari’ah Conspiracy Theory Industry

Another Month, Another Haet List

Giyus Megaphonies

Giyus megaphoney onanistic revelry:

Report hate spreading users

Fighting hate is a tedious job – it seems that for every user we report 5 new ones spring up in its place. But this only makes me more determined to stand up to hate and anti Semitism. The list of links today are all of users that spread hate, promote anti Semitism and de-legitimise Israel. Please report them to Facebook or Twitter respectively.Facebook

Login into your facebook account and click on any of these links. Click on the “Report/Block this person” or the “Report page” link on the left hand side of the screen.

* Students for Justice in Palestine – spreading anti semitic hate messages claiming Israel is engaged in ethnic cleaning
* Justice for Palestine – blames Israel of brainwashing Christian children and encourages people to sign up for the next flotilla to Gaza.
* Abdus Ayydin Rayyan Samad – justifies shooting rockets on civilians in Israel

Twitter

Login into your twitter account and click on any of these links. click on the options button located on the upper right hand side Twitter button. Choose the 3rd option which would report that user to Twitter.

* cactijakeye – bluntly calls himself anti Semitic in his profile – supports hateful conspiracy theories like 9/11 was an inside Israeli job
* xXKelly82Xx – claims Zionists are not human and other fanatic hate speech
* BoycottAhava – behind the global campaign to boycott Ahava products claiming Ahava Cosmetics are made by Israeli profiteers in Occupied Palestine.
* Ziggy stardust – with twits like “racist zionist settlers kill Palestinian children” there is no doubt Ziggy Stardust is anti Zionist and Anti Semitic
* Remroum – openly supports terrorism against Israel
* Tha Captain – Anti zionist calling Israel a murdering state
* Ali Abunimah – constantly spreads Israel Apartheid mantra
* Jinjirrie – Promotes flotilla anti zionist and anti Semitic causes
* Worldpeace2day – obsessively promotes Israel Apartheid messages
* Nouren shiraz – constantly calling Israel a racist terrorist state engaged in “ethnic cleansing”

Thank you for taking part in this effort – all of us in Giyus.org are for free speech but that does not entitle anyone to delegitimize Israel and spread hate against the Jewish people as a whole.

What, then, does one do, when faced with one’s appearance on this ridiculous haet lsit? Why, message the perpetrator, of course 🙂

Jinjirrie: . @giyusgirl – pls get yr hasbaroid witchhunt rap correct – i’m anti-zionism, anti-occupation, anti-racism & anti-bigotry – that means you #

giyusgirl: @Jinjirrie anti-Zionism = no country for Jews = Jews are not entitled to their own country = Antisemitism . Enough said. #

Jinjirrie: . @giyusgirl anti-zionism = anti-racism & anti-fascism = equal rights & true democracy instead of ethnosupremacy = justice #

This is not the first zionist haet lsit on which I’ve appeared – the JIDF have me on several of their puerile witchhunt campaigns also. For some of my historical brushes with them, see here.

Zionism is a secular political ideology which grew alongside other nationalist movements in the 19th century. Similar to some other nationalisms, zionism exhibits toxic symptoms of white supremacism in its colonialism – indigenous arabs were and are regarded largely as inconvenient sub-humans, to be expelled and exterminated whilst the entitled, privileged ‘race’ usurp their land. Racists like @giyusgirl see indigenous Palestinians in Israel and the Territories it occupies as excess humans, and that challenging this zionist ethnosupremacism and colonialism is ‘anti-semitic’. Yet *all* colonialism is chauvinistic, shored up by a sense of rightness, privilege and entitlement. The erroneous concept of ‘races’ is essential to racists who desire superior privileges for their own ‘race’. There is only one race, the human race, and all humans are entitled to equal rights, respect and dignity wherever they may be, wherever they were born.

Palestine / Israel Links

@georgehale Get this: On Thursday’s “day of rage”, Israel settlers distributed threatening flyers to several diplomats in the West Bank. #

Australia Links

The Spectre of Democracy : All you need to know that is wrong with The Australian is in this picture:
Darkness at Noon: Bradley Manning
She’s back: Hanson to run

Other Links

Celebrating International Women’s Day : A day of working women’s solidarity
UAE activists demand direct elections
Whistleblowers: Despite reforms, insiders who blow the whistle at institutions like the World Bank, face retaliation
Cote D’ivoire: “It’s sheer horror we’re living here… People are being burned alive and hacked to bits”
Haunting 9/11 video captured by NYPD helicopter shows World Trade Center’s Twin Towers collapse

The Canberra School

The Canberra School

Economists are extremists
of irrational faith,
acolytes of daily newsprint
parsing icons of inflation and recession
with fringe benefits
doctrines of gain through pain,
while wealth breeds wealth by stealth.

Keynes, Smith and Friedman –
Thatcher, Keating, Reagan,
the pedantic pantheons
and sacrifice of certainty.
Economists as pampered disciples,
their J curved recursive credos of trade and ego
hardening malleable hearts to stone,
resounding hollow in
less speculative souls.

I’d like to turn the tables in the temple,
and for every new presumption,
make them reimburse the poor.

Jinjirrie 1992

To our sisters on #IWD2011 – equal rights : stand with the oppressed not the oppressor : end imperialism : capitalism is not woman-friendly

Australia Links

“Are you really sure what the phrase ‘Aboriginal perspectives’ means? The first step in understanding, respecting and eventually incorporating Aboriginal perspectives is simply by understanding the nature of perspective.”
Doing the Trained Monkey Dance
Nation of unrepentant pirates costs $900m
Racist Facebook Hater of the week
Gillard arrives in US for busy tour

Ms Gillard will become the first foreign dignitary to address the new US congress and only the fourth Australian prime minister to ever do so.

Her speech is expected to commemorate 60 years of the ANZUS alliance.

The other big moment will be a meeting with Mr Obama, where the exit strategy for the Afghan war and the global economic recovery will be likely topics.

But Ms Gillard has already indicated she will steer clear of difficult territory, including Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

She will also discuss global security during talks with other senior administration figures, including secretary of state Hillary Clinton and the CIA director.

The global economy will dominate discussions with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and the head of the World Bank.

There will also be dinner with former Labor leader and now US ambassador Kim Beazley, lunch with News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch and talks with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

Palestine / Israel Links

Egyptian diplomat says new leaders could ease travel restrictions on Gaza Palestinians
“It appears the policemen escalated the situation, and the suspects were dragged into the unrest. During the tumult some demonstrators incurred blows and violence unleashed by police.” The judge rejected the police’s request to expel the detainees from Sheikh Jarrah.
Protesting Israeli Diplomat Joins Sheikh Jarrah Demonstration
Palestinian with Jewish wife denied permanent visa : Son of Tul Karm’s Adel Hussein served in an IDF combat unit.
Yediot Finally Publishes Story of Kidnapping of Gaza Engineer
Liberal Senator calls for apology for Evian “hurt”
Choice of JStreet ‘mascot’ raises questions about Jewish identity
Saudis ban all demonstrations
Anglican bishop of Jerusalem sues Israel over visa refusal
Israel’s diplomats are spineless propagandists
Jewish people in the French capital live in the shadow of hatred
The right to live in Jaffa
The Israeli occupation echoes from Cairo: Amira Hass reminded that the Palestinians are under occupation when almost all Egyptians refuse to meet with her because she writes for an Israeli newspaper.
Kevin Rudd’s Jerusalem Press Conference

Steve Weizman, AFP: Without going into details Minister, did you in your talks with the Prime Minister raise your concerns about settlements.

Mr Rudd: I don’t go into those details, because my relationship with the Israeli Government is longstanding, with the Prime Minister it’s longstanding in various positions he and I have held over a long period of time. Therefore I leave those deliberations to themselves.

Of course, the wider question of settlements is a continuing issue in the international debate, as are the broader questions concerning the final status issues which I referred to before.

Libya Links

SAS and MI6 officers released by Libya’s rebel commanders
White House chief of staff sceptical about Libyan no-fly zones
Obama’s Libyan Abdication

Wikileaks Links

CRIMINALIZING THE TRUTH TELLERS – AN ANALYSIS BY DR. LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

Other Links

Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns to Drug Therapy
NATO allies warn US on too much defense scrimping – While the Pentagon tightens its financial belt, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has hinted at reducing American troop levels in Europe. However, Washington must reconcile a smaller force with traditional NATO obligations.
America Is Not Broke : just morally bankrupt
Put merchants of death out of business

Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, is pushing for the arms embargo slapped on China after the Tiananmen Square massacre to be scrapped on the grounds that relations with Beijing need to be nurtured for strategic reasons. Proving that she suffers from the same lack of scruples as other top players in New Labour, she is more concerned with drumming up business for the arms industry than in China’s oppression of Uighurs in Xinjiang or Buddhists in Tibet. Proving, too, that mollycoddling the arms industry transcends party lines in British politics, David Cameron toured the Persian Gulf last month with a few of his country’s leading arms traders. Critics of the trade are “completely at odds with reality”, the prime minister thundered.
It is right that a fresh ban on weapons sales to Libya has now been introduced. But we know that such bans can be lifted on the flimsiest of pretexts.

End Israel’s Apartheid & Bring Down Its Illegal Wall

On Al Jazeera’s Riz Khan : Walls of division – Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters adds his voice to Palestinian people and others demanding Israel to remove its illegal separation wall.

Roger Waters from Pink Floyd calls for solidarity with the BDS campaign against apartheid Israel.

Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Protest, March 4, 2011

The Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity protest, comprised of Israelis and Palestinians, takes place in East Jerusalem each week. This week’s action was met with violence as the police sought to shut down the protest. Three activists were taken into police custody. Sheikh Jarrah is a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem subject to house evictions and increased illegal settlement.

Palestine / Israel Links

Hundreds of women marching on Qalandia checkpoint near Ramallah to mark intl. women’s day
Ali Abunimah March 2011 International Tour
Treasury to raise Holocaust survivors’ rent

Other Links

Virus of Arab revolutions eats Balkans from within

White Australia – Nation of Bigoted Climate Savers

While the recent earthquake shook the bones of Christchurch in New Zealand, an earthquake of another kind rippled briefly through the Australian landscape. I want to make sure it is not ignored. The results of the 12 year nationwide Challenging Racism survey from the University of Western Sydney shocked me to the bone. Download the national results here, state comparisons here, and click on the map here to find out further information about racism in your region, which is where you are able to compare the different groups who are the main targets of racists with the state and national averages.

The results for Wide Bay-Burnett (my area in Queensland) confirm decades of personal observation, demonstrating the existence of significantly more racism than the state or national averages with US racial target of choice, Muslims at the top of the polls, a trend which is consistent from region to state to nation. Queenslanders are more prejudiced toward Aboriginal folks than Asians, a trend which is reversed in my region by a whisker. There are more equal opportunity haters in my neck of the woods it seems as there’s a scant couple of percent between the antipathy toward Indigenous folks, Asians and Jews.

  % of Wide Bay respondents Total QLD survey % Total Australia survey %
Anti-Asian 36.4 27.9 23.8
Anti-Indigenous 35.8 29.0 27.9
Anti-Italian 17.0 12.7 11.0
Anti-British 8.5 7.5 7.8
Anti-Muslim 57.0 50.1 48.6
Anti-Semitic (Jewish) 33.9 23.5 23.3
Anti-Christian 14.5 9.0 9.7
Anti-Black African 27.0*
* Note: Responses for ACT, SA, Perth, NT and TAS only.

However, it doesn’t matter which shade of bigotry folks project, their carbon footprint is more related with their faith and participation or lack thereof in the modern idolatry of consumerism and its theoretical underpinnings in economic irrationalism.

Concerned about the carbon tax and its effect on your much abused budget? Are you not incensed you have voluntarily adopted a simpler less consumerist lifestyle for years and you will now be punished further by price rises because of the irresponsible behaviour of the rest of the wretches with whom you share these colonial shores? Gillard’s vaunted “educative” spanking effect from the carbon tax on consumer habits may be short-lived and very quickly, the population will resume its profligate ways, as with the GST, another notable government tax grab. We need a broader vision, with a widet more-effective brush, and not the the faux “Billy Tea Party” offered by Cory Bernardi, one must quickly add.

Here’s an idea to substitute for the carbon tax which would have a multiplier effect elsewhere, by encouraging holiday makers to less polluting relaxation.

End the cruise ship industry now – it is an anachronism which mainly benefits a tiny fraction of the population, the ruling elite. If Australia closed down all cruise ship industries, a good proportion of our carbon tax would be paid in advance. Noone would be screaming except rich boaties, cruise ship companies,.gluttonous tourists and their class allies, the politicians whom they pamper with campaign donations and dinners at yacht. Who *really needs* to go on a cruise ffs … end the cruise shipping industry now, do the planet and everyone but the rich and/or stupid and their enablers a favour. For those who simply must have a ‘cruise’, the ships can be permanently based ashore where waste can be disposed of properly and fuel impact removed. My favourite whiners against my stellar idea thus far are self-labelled greenies who have taken Alaskan cruises so they can say they’ve seen the result of the Exxxon Valdez oil spill disaster. These folks must do better. There’s plenty of room for productive extension also, by cutting back on defence force ship size and number, and on commercial shipping generally. At the very least, tightening of pollution regulations across the oceans would contribute greatly to the reduction of the human carbon AND pollution footprints.

For more positive climate change impact, consider this simple two pronged approach: (1) Lower the population by removing incentives for breeding by ensuring adequate pensions and care for aged folks, and (2) Educate women since educated women choose to breed less overall, “except for women who pursue the most advanced degrees. . Women with professional degrees and Ph.D.’s are slightly more likely to have had children than their counterparts with just master’s or bachelor’s degrees”.

Now, for some other climate saving ideas which anyone except the completely decrepit, lazy or unimaginative middle class twit can implement:

Climate savers #1 : Instead of *driving* to gym or sports club in your big shiny 4WD, walk or take a train; form a neighbourhood walking group

Climate savers #2 : Eat less, you corpulent middle class wankers

Climate savers #3: Don’t overbreed, it only viralises your existent pollution and ignorant consumerist mindset

Climate savers #4: If you really must breed, instead of buying little Georgina a puppy or the latest Nintendo, buy her a pet rock.

Climate savers #5: Instead of burning fossil fuels, burn politicians in a non-polluting furnace. Or use as mulch for your garden.

Climate savers #6: If there are no politicians left to feed the non-polluting furnace, throw in the farting cows. Consider drilling down the pollutant gas-producing food chain.

Climate savers #7: Surprise the husband and kids! experience the unexpected and stay HOME for the holidays. Talking with each other makes a novel, relaxing change so for added benefit, send your iPads, iPods and iPhones television, computers, wiis and xboxes on a holiday to a friend’s shed and/or for a jaunt through Australia Post snail mail so you are not tempted.

Climate savers #8: Instead of planning your next boastful debt to be for a below ground pool, plant a rainforest in your backyard.

Climate savers #9: Learn from 40,000 years of indigenous habitation of Australia – your white colonial consumerism and capitalism are unsustainable, planet and people unfriendly. Contrary to questionable popular beliefs, humans are more likely to survive as a species if they cooperate and live within the garden in balance rather than attempting to dominate and subdue it for the benefit of an insatiable ruling elite. Don’t vote against your own interests. The elite are relying on the fact that you have done this in the past.

Climate savers #10: Economic rationalism is irrational. Never trust a smiling politician or any other member of the ruling elite and if they are telling you to do something it is quite often something which they will not do themselves. Insist any politician or pundit who asks you to change your habits by going without something, practise what they preach and demonstrate how to do it themselves first. You might also remind them that carrots taste much better than sticks and are healthier for you and the planet too.

Related Links

Who is to blame for racism in Australia?

Shipping pollution more than a drop in the ocean

A US scientific study is pointing the finger at the global shipping industry as a major contributor to climate change.

The study has found that the one hundred thousand commercial ships which travel the world’s oceans emit almost half as much particle pollution as the world’s 600 million cars.

The findings have been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

And the lead author is calling for an improvement in the quality of shipping fuels.

In the past, ships running under flags of convenience have been exposed in reports like the Ships of Shame inquiry as being unsafe for crews and polluting the ocean.

Now scientists have put a figure on exactly how much air pollution is emitted by the world’s shipping fleet.

US-based scientist Daniel Lack, who works for a US government agency called the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has found every year commercial ships emit 1 million kilograms of particle pollution into the air.

Cruise Ships

The cruise ship industry is largely a North American phenomenon, and more than 80 percent of the approximately seven million passengers traveling are North Americans. The cruise ship market has expanded slightly in the Mediterranean and very slightly in the Far East. In Europe there are a large number of smaller passenger vessel services operating in the domestic or car ferry markets, but these vessels tend to provide transportation rather than entertainment and tourism.

Given their lucrative ties to the United States market, it is hardly surprising that the major cruise lines all maintain their principal offices in the United States. For example, Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. has its corporate headquarters in Miami and employs approximately 1200 personnel throughout the United States. Carnival Corporation, the largest cruise line company in the world, has several offices in the US, as well as personnel and properties scattered throughout the country. Carnival owns twelve cruise brands, including Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, and Windstar Cruises, all of which operate in North America. Royal Caribbean has its principal executive office in Miami.

The cruise line industry will exhibit strong growth throughout the next two decades. The average annual growth of the industry has been almost eight percent since 1980, and with the world fleet of 230 cruise ships operating at 90 percent capacity, there are no signs of this growth slowing. North America is the largest market, and surveys indicate that 56 percent of Americans want to take cruises, while only 11 percent have done so. The number of cruise line passengers worldwide is projected to triple to 15 million by 2020, according to one industry expert.

Experiencing the stupidity of high density high consumption human living on the high seas – New York on the waves!

When she launches in 2010, Allure of the Seas will share the title of the world’s largest and most revolutionary cruise ship with sister-ship Oasis of the Seas. An architectural marvel at sea, Allure of the Seas will span 16 decks, encompass 220,000 gross registered tons (GRT), carry 5,400 guests at double occupancy, and feature 2,700 staterooms. Allure of the Seas, and Oasis of the Seas, will be homeported at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Allure of the Seas will tout the cruise line’s new neighborhood concept of seven distinct themed areas, which will offer guests of every age the widest array of onboard vacation experiences that cater to their personal styles, preferences or moods. Guests will enjoy lush and tropical grounds open to the sky in Central Park, located in the center of the ship and spanning more than the length of a football field. Central Park will be lined with boutiques and specialty restaurants, ranging from casual to fine dining, and introduce balcony staterooms rising five decks above the storefronts and overlooking the park – one of a few new categories of onboard accommodations made possible by the ship’s revolutionary design.

For a quick digression, here’s what happened when bigots took flight against Muslims in Orange County, California, recently.

Glenn Greenwald comments on the growing fascist antipathy toward Muslims in the US.

UPDATE 29 OCTOBER 2014

Has the hatred of Muslims eased since 2009 or does the methodology of the two surveys make their results beyond comparison?

A quarter of Australians describe their personal attitude towards Muslims as negative or very negative, according to a detailed national survey on social cohesion and immigration.

People who are most likely to be highly intolerant towards Muslims include those who are over 65, educated to year 11, work in trades and intended to vote Liberal/National or independent.

Palestine / Israel Links

Palestine Conference in Sydney : 14-15 May 2011 : Australian civil society & Palestinian freedom
Support BDS in Marrickville – sign the letter of support for Marrickville Council by emailing; you can read the letter here
Facing up to Jewish nationalism and racist violence
Rattling the Cage: Tips for information warriors
Sign petition to ask TIAA-CREF to stop investing in companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Why Is Israel Aid Exempt? – Rosenberg blames it on AIPAC, omits Christian zionists and MIC
Danby and Marrickville Preferences
Action Alert-Pizza Hut – boycott Pizza Hut until either a) they close their restaurants in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories; b) Israel ends its occupation of Palestinian territory.
Is entertaining dictators worse than normalizing apartheid?

Why not call out Beyonce, Usher, Mariah Carey, and so many other artists, all of whom have performed in Israel, a state which practices a form of apartheid worse than anything the South African apartheid government had ever done? In 1973, the United Nations General Assembly defined the crime of Apartheid as “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.” As Israel’s official policy privileges Jewish nationals over non-Jewish citizens, creating de facto and de jure discrimination against the indigenous Palestinian people, it is hard to dispute that this supposed “democracy” is in reality an apartheid state.

Those who shill for orientalists & imperialist moles are tarred with the same brush. For more info on specifics, see ikhras.com
Hamas to present new reconciliation plan
Israel to Sue Bedouin Residents of Demolished Village for Demolition Costs
Defending Palestinian Children’s Human Rights and What You Can Do About It!
The struggle for al-Araqib is the struggle for Palestine
Piqued Israeli hasbaroids outclassed by Palestinian poetic genius @Remroum truth at #Israel #Apartheid Week
Court indicts J’lem teen for manslaughter

Jewish stabber not charged with murder. Other teens involved in murder of Arab man to stand trial for aggravated assault, obstruction of justice. Father of victim: ‘My son brutally murdered for speaking Arabic’

Israel prepares for major military operations

Libya Links

Gaddafi fights to regain control
The definition of hypocrisy
The Neocon Plans for Libya (including visits from Muriawec!)
LSE director Sir Howard Davies resigns over Libya links
Translated video: Libyan sister raises morale!
U.S. Inserts ICC Exemption into U.N. Libya Measure

Egypt Links

Egypt in Movement

Wikileaks Links

Gillard attacks media for ‘myths’ over Assange
British magazine: Assange says Jewish conspiracy trying to discredit WikiLeaks
Julian Assange and the big picture John Kampfner:

When urged at the start of January by Assange’s publisher to help him write his memoirs I said I was ready to assist, but only if I had strong editorial input and that no subject was off-limits. This, I was told, was not acceptable. Roughly at the same time our organisation started asking questions about Israel Shamir, a man accused of Holocaust denial and of being a close associate of Belarus’s autocratic leader Alexander Lukashenko. Index is one of the founders of the Belarus Committee. Despite repeated but polite requests to WikiLeaks, our team was stonewalled, so we went public with our concerns.

Assange’s reported conspiracy remarks to Private Eye magazine about me and senior figures in the Guardian do not help his cause. With so many genuine adversaries, why seek more? His approach has reinforced a view that whistleblowing is the preserve of irresponsible eccentrics – playing into the hands of malign forces in the US seeking to prosecute him for “terrorism” or under the espionage act.

Thanks in large part to WikiLeaks, no matter how hard the authorities try, it will be impossible in future to prevent conscientious whistleblowers from passing on material that seeks to cast a light on the actions of the powerful – information that might otherwise remain secret. Due to the published documents, people around the world – notably in the Middle East and north Africa – have a better sense of what others thought of their autocratic leaders. All this is the positive legacy. The rest is soap opera or, dare I say it, Tinseltown.

Other Links

This Is Just the Start – classically reprehensible, stupid column by zioimperialism’s flagship sycophant Thomas Friedman, but then read This is just the start and it never fucking ends which explicates the Friedman drivel
Growing anti-Muslim hatred in the U.S.
US Rendition and Torture: A New Front for Accountability Opens Up in Djibouti