Pax Christi Victoria

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

The Teetering Empire - The Pivot to Nowhere

Counterpunch Published 30 December 2013 by PATRICK FOY With 2014 now upon us, a cosmological question may have occurred to you. Where is America going to “pivot to” next? Being a foreign policy and history buff, I’ve thought about it. Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist of the Financial Times, has some ideas on the subject which he presented in a recent column. According to Rachman, America is pivoting back to the Middle East. He wishes it weren’t so. He is concerned that “America is obsessed by a region with a population one-third the size of China’s.” We should all be concerned, but for a different reason. The Obama White House announced some months ago that America was pivoting to Asia. Fine. Naturally, I paid no attention. (How can anyone take Obama seriously at this stage?) The White House now appears to be reversing course. And why is that? An unnamed US official has given Gideon the spot answer: “The White House is about crisis management. And, in foreign policy, 90 per cent of the crises are in the Middle East.” Which only begs the question, why? Mr. Rachman informs us, “…a Syrian conflict that has now claimed more than 100,000 lives; violent turmoil in Egypt; and the tensions caused by Iran’s nuclear programme….as the year developed, Mr. Kerry became deeply involved in all of these issues, while keeping up the pressure on the Israelis and the Palestinians.” Crisis management? Keeping up the pressure? Ugh! May I suggest that the world would be a saner and much safer place if Washington were to pivot all the way back to North America, in fact, back inside the Washington D.C. beltway. Most of these Middle East calamities were dreamed up by officials and politicians in Washington–Neocons and Liberal interventionists–then exported to the outlying provinces of the American faux empire. That empire is now teetering because of it. Item. In the first place, the nuclear “crisis” with Iran is entirely bogus. There is no crisis to manage. There is only a make-believe cover story. The start of “serious nuclear negotiations with Iran” is not about nuclear weapons at all, but about using the hypothetical Persian Bomb to further crucify Iran with economic and financial sanctions, if Tehran does not give up what it does not have, and jump through hoops. As you might imagine, all sorts of “tensions” can be generated by gratuitous trouble-making. Washington’s attitude toward Iran has been scandalous. The possibility that obsessed policy-makers in the White House, on Capitol Hill and in Tel-Aviv may actually believe their own propaganda is unfortunate. In days of yore, the Soviet nomenklatura had a similar problem. It does not occur to Rachman to ask why Washington is fixated with Iran and its non-existent nuclear weapons program. He accepts the officially-proffered, exceedingly far-fetched scenario as true, like 98% of the Western establishment commentariat. The reluctance to wander off the reservation is palpable. Item. In the second place, the so-called “civil war” in Syria was an avoidable tragedy, irrespective of the flaws of the Assad regime. This bloodbath is the result of a coordinated, covert policy of destabilization. The aim was to wreck and implode Syria as a nation-state, following the pattern of Iraq. Without outside instigation, no “civil war” would have happened. Washington took the nominal lead. Luckily, Vladimir Putin and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov stepped in at the 11th hour, and took the matches away from Obama and Kerry. Why was Syria being targeted? Years ago Israel annexed part of Syria, the Golan Heights, and has no intention of ever returning it. A Syria in ruins, run by Sunni extremists and a veritable madhouse, would make negotiations on this outstanding issue impossible. That is the goal. In addition, Syrian president Assad is an ally of Hezbollah, which successfully defended Lebanon in its most recent armed confrontation with Israel. Now Saudi Arabia has gotten into the act due to murderous sectarian rivalry between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. In sum, the White House has taken its cue from self-interested schemers and fanatics. In retrospect, would it not have been wiser for Washington to focus upon honest-broker diplomacy in an attempt to tranquilize the region? But wisdom and honesty are in perilous short supply in the capital of the lone surviving superpower. We now face varying degrees of mayhem in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. It’s a nightmare. Cui bono? Item. Egypt has already been destroyed for all intents and purposes. In the aftermath of Anwar Sadat’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, Egypt became utterly dependent upon American foreign aid to survive. Most of the aid went to the Egyptian military and to Sadat’s opportunistic successor, Hosni Mubarak. It was tantamount to a bribe, to maintain them in power, to stop them from abandoning the peace treaty, and to prevent them from helping their fellow Arabs, the Palestinians, caged up in Gaza. If Sadat had not been assassinated, I very much doubt he would have allowed Egypt to become a flunky and for himself to be taken advantage of. Mubarak was no Sadat. Egypt was under martial law all this time. Clearly, it was an untenable and unhealthy situation. That seemed OK with Washington. Then Egypt exploded, finally. Now, thanks to a coup, the military is back in charge. The country is in chaos and its economy in shambles. A genuine civil war is in the offing. This is the indirect result of American foreign policy “crisis management” over decades. Some might call it meddling. If you ever wanted to visit the Pyramids, you can forget it. There appears to be a pattern of nation-wrecking at work. Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. One explanation might be that American politicians are eager to push forward the perceived interests of Israel, because it advances their own career trajectories upward. Not to be outdone, Washington’s foreign policy elite make grandiose commitments based on the misguided idea that America is the indispensable nation. The consequences are often catastrophic. Item. Gideon Rachman writes as if various Middle East problems are unrelated and compartmentalized. To the contrary, they are linked. Everything Washington does must be cleared at the end of the day, one way or the other, with the Israel Lobby. The overriding concern being, is this good for our ally Israel? If it’s not exactly what Tel Aviv might want, then Israel must be compensated in some way. This leads to further complications and posturing. Take Egypt. Presidents Sadat and Mubarak, both military officers, were the direct heirs of Colonel Gamal Nasser, who came to power in Egypt as a pan-Arab nationalist in 1952, largely in response to the success of the Zionists in Palestine, next door. Without the imposition of Zionism in Palestine, there may well have been no military coup against King Farouk, and Egypt may have evolved in a normal, secular way, free of martial law and Islamic fanaticism. Egypt, not Saudi Arabia, was and remains the leader of the Arab world. The Arabs had nothing against Jews as such. The Arabs had lived in harmony with Jews throughout the Middle East for centuries. But the Arabs could hardly be expected to welcome the expulsion of Arab Palestinians from Palestine, to be replaced by many thousands of Jewish outlanders, mainly from Russia and Poland. These interlopers arrived as prepackaged zealots, with the attitude that they owned the country and that the native inhabitants were of no importance. It amounted to naked neocolonialism is a post-colonial world. Hence, the 1948 war over Palestine, the Arab-Israeli conflicts thereafter, and now the never-ending “peace process”, which has turned out to be a 24-carat charade. The crux of the problem remains the right of return of those dispossessed Palestinians from 1948 and 1967. They and their descendants number several million and remain in refugee camps scattered throughout Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. Restitution is in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and UN resolutions. Washington and Tel Aviv stonewall the issue. All kinds of blowback have resulted from the refusal by Washington and Europe to act honorably and bring justice to the Palestinians. The list is too long to cover here. It is the main reason why Washington has singled out Iran for special treatment. Iran does not recognize the status quo in Palestine. Tehran stands up for the Palestinians and promotes their story. It is an embarrassing alternative narrative which Washington and Tel Aviv would prefer no one hear. Conclusion. America’s difficulties in the greater Middle East have been self-inflicted. The price for hubris and folly has been high. I was surprised to learn from Gideon Rachman’s article that the Pentagon still maintains 40,000 troops in Iraq. I thought that misadventure was over. Obama said so. The “right” war in his view was Afghanistan, as opposed to Bush’s “wrong” war in Iraq. Obama has prosecuted his war. Afghanistan is deteriorating rapidly and, after ten years of combat, looks to be a bust. Recall that the U.S. Army and Air Force and the CIA are in Afghanistan solely because of 9/11. That’s where the bad guys were. But this fact only begs the larger question, to wit, why was America hit on 9/11? What was the motivation? That is critical to understand. Was the 9/11 atrocity largely the result of Washington’s one-sided policy backing Israel to the hilt no matter what? If the answer is yes or maybe, the implications are profound. PATRICK FOY is an essayist and short story writer. He graduated from Columbia University, where he studied English literature, European history and American diplomatic history. His work can be found at www.PatrickFoyDossier.com.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Pax Christi International

Brussels, 27 December 2013 Dear Bishop Paride Taban, Dear friends of the Kuron Peace Village, Dear friends of Pax Christi in South Sudan and elsewhere, As members of Pax Christi International we want to assure you that we stand with the people of South Sudan at this critical moment. Two years ago, South Sudan became independent and many of you celebrated that new momentum as a historical step in the direction of freedom and democracy. Since mid-December of this year, violence has escalated which led to hundreds of deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands of people in the country. Today, we are deeply concerned about the future of the country. We mourn with those who have lost loved ones and are grieving. Innocent civilians are being targeted because of their ethnicity. This is a grave violation of human rights. Pax Christi International, together with Pope Francis, is calling for social harmony in South Sudan. Political leaders should settle their differences peacefully. We support the political mediation as given by neighbouring countries. We also support all efforts from religious leaders in the country to call for peaceful existence which should be restored as soon as possible. Meanwhile, we believe that all civilians should be protected and that the United Nations, the African Union and humanitarian agencies should be able to shelter all those who have become victims of this tragedy. The rights of vulnerable people should be ensured. We call all our Member Organisations worldwide, to pray and to stand in solidarity with all the victims of the violence in South Sudan and in the region as a whole. People all over the world will celebrate the World Day of Peace on 1 January, and we hope and pray that peace may prevail. In peace, Marie Dennis and Bishop Kevin Dowling, Co-Presidents Pax Christi International José Henriquez, Secretary General Pax Christi International www.paxchristi.net

Monday, December 23, 2013

An Australian Christmas Story

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Not God's Work: Apocalyptic Humanity

Tom Engelhardt TomDispatch.com December 18, 2013 Since a nuclear weapon went off over Hiroshima, we have been living with visions of global catastrophe, apocalyptic end times, and extinction that were once the sole property of religion. Since August 6, 1945, it has been possible for us to imagine how human beings, not God, could put an end to our lives on this planet. Conceptually speaking, that may be the single most striking development of our age and, to this day, it remains both terrifying and hard to take in. Nonetheless, the apocalyptic possibilities lurking in our scientific-military development stirred popular culture over the decades to a riot of world-ending possibilities. ‘What is the worst that we could possibly face in the decades to come? The answer: a nightmare scenario.’ In more recent decades, a second world-ending (or at least world-as-we-know-it ending) possibility has crept into human consciousness. Until relatively recently, our burning of fossil fuels and spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere represented such a slow-motion approach to end times that we didn’t even notice what was happening. Only in the 1970s did the idea of global warming or climate change begin to penetrate the scientific community, as in the 1990s it edged its way into the rest of our world, and slowly into popular culture, too…….. Read more http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/12/18-1

Sunday, December 01, 2013

Some dates and activities for your information

Friday 20 December: Radioactive Exposure Tour Organising Meeting. Plans are underway and there shall be an organising meeting on the 20th December in Melbourne, please get in touch (email gemromuld@gmail.com) if you'd like to come along and help organise this amazing trip to the heart of the nuclear industry in SA and all the way to Muckaty, NT! At this stage, the tour will run for two weeks in April 2014. More detail coming imminently! Sunday 11 May -18 May, 2014: Kanyini with the Mutitjulu community of Uluru. A rare opportunity to spend 7 days in Uluru with the Mutitjulu community as they share the wisdom and teachings of the spiritual philosophy, Kanyini. This course provides a privileged and personal experience of Aboriginal culture and its connection with the spirituality of the dreaming. Share in this life changing experience of land and culture travelling as a small group into the red heart of Australia. Cost: $2,200 + your transport there. For more info & to register, click here. Oases Graduate School, Community Learning and Research Centre, 2 Minona Street, Hawthorn, VIC 3122. The Tao of Sustainability: Expressions of interest invited now for 2014. This one week urban residential short course ran for the first time in October, with a wonderful group of participants and facilitators. In the wake of overwhelming feedback from those involved, and many others who wanted to be, we are happy to announce that we will be offering the course again in 2014. Sustainability awareness & rhetoric is everywhere these days, but in many ways we continue to worsen the problems we are trying to fix. This course creates the space, engages the experts, & introduces the tools for us to examine the most common misconceptions & pitfalls of sustainability, & develop a deeper understanding of how we can achieve truly sustainable societies. All backgrounds & levels of experience are welcome. $1,050 (inc. all accommodation, food, tours & materials); $950 early bird registration to be announced soon. For more info on the course, presenters & residence, & to express interest in next year's running, click here. Oases Graduate School, Community Learning and Research Centre | 2 Minona St | Hawthorn, VIC 3122. Thursday 6th February 2014, 6 pm to 8 pm (tea and coffee provided): Public Lecture: Multifaith Australia: Reimagining our Common Future. Emeritus Professor Joseph A. Camilleri OAM. At an RMIT Swanston Street venue. More details soon.

Friday, June 07, 2013

Bradley Manning: Prisoner Of Conscience

Prof. Francis A. Boyle Countercurrents.org June 5, 2013 American citizens and soldiers such as Bradley Manning possess the basic right under international law and United States domestic law, including the U.S. Constitution, to engage in acts of civil resistance designed to prevent, impede, thwart, or terminate ongoing criminal activities perpetrated by U.S. government officials in their conduct of foreign affairs policies and military operations purported to relate to defense and counter-terrorism. If not so restrained, the United States government could very well precipitate a Third World War Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the peoples of the world have witnessed successive governments in the United States that have demonstrated little if any respect for fundamental considerations of international law, human rights, and the United States Constitution itself. Instead, the world has watched a comprehensive and malicious assault upon the integrity of the international and domestic legal orders by groups of men and women who are thoroughly Machiavellian in their perception of international relations and in their conduct of both foreign affairs and American domestic policy. Even more seriously, in many instances specific components of the U.S. government’s foreign policies constitute ongoing criminal activity under well recognized principles of both international law and United States domestic law, and in particular the Nuremberg Charter, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the Nuremberg Principles, as well as the Pentagon’s own U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 on The Law of Land Warfare (1956), which applies to the President as Commander-in-Chief of United States Armed Forces under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution….. One generation ago the peoples of the world asked themselves: Where were the ‘good’ Germans? Well, there were some good Germans. The Lutheran theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the foremost exemplar of someone who led a life of principled opposition to the Nazi-terror state even unto death. Today the peoples of the world are likewise asking themselves: Where are the ‘good’ Americans?.... Read more http://www.countercurrents.org/boyle050613.htm

Saturday, August 13, 2011

August Agape

Pax Christi Victoria Inc.
International Christian Peace Movement


You are invited to the August Agape


What Future for Asylum Seekers?
What are the alternatives to the malaysia solution?


Speaker
: Aran Mylvaganam Tamil Asylum Seeker

Sunday August 21



at Kildara, rear 39 Stanhope Street, East Malvern.



12.30 for 1 p.m.


We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.

PLEASE BRING FOOD TO SHARE

(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)



ALL WELCOME

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Events

A reminder that August 6 and 9 mark the 66th anniversaries of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is an opportunity to reflect on these tragedies and redouble our efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.

This Saturday (August 6th) your invited to attend a lunchtime vigil in Melbourne at 1-2PM on the GPO steps in Bourke Street Mall followed by a Japanese for Peace concert from 3PM at the State Library of Victoria.

Next Tuesday night (August 9th) ICAN invites you to an evening lecture on the 9th by US disarmament expert Hans M. Kristensen and former foreign minister Gareth Evans. They will discuss the US Nuclear Posture Review of 2010 and its implications for Asia and the Pacific.

DETAILS:

Peace Vigil and Concert

Date: Saturday August 6th
Time: 1 - 2PM
Venue: Melbourne GPO

Speakers Forum

Date: Tuesday 9 August
Time: 5.15pm for a 5.30pm start - 7pm
Venue: Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne
RSVP: fihlvic@gmail.com

We hope you can make it along to these events.

August Agape

Pax Christi Victoria Inc.
International Christian Peace Movement



You are invited to the August Agape


What Future for Asylum Seekers?
What are the alternatives to the malaysia solution?

Speaker

Aran Mylvaganam Tamil Asylum Seeker



Sunday August 21



at Kildara, rear 39 Stanhope Street, East Malvern.



12.30 for 1 p.m.


We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.

PLEASE BRING FOOD TO SHARE

(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)



ALL WELCOME

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Pax Christi June Agape

Help to break mainstream media's deafening silence about what is happening in Afghanistan.

The war and Australia’s involvement have been going on for ten long years, thousands have been killed, yet the country remains devastated and insecure.

You are invited to a Pax Christi gathering

Sunday 19 June 2011
12.30 pm for 1.00 pm (for a shared meal)

2.00 pm discussion on

The Way forward in Afghanistan
St John's Uniting Church Hall

567 Glenhuntly Road Elsternwick
(cnr Foster St. Melways 67J4)

Moderated by:
Joseph Camilleri

With:
Richard Tanter
Deborah Storie
Simon Moyle
Jessica Morrison
_______________________________________________________

For further information contact:
Rita Camilleri ritac@paxchristi.org.au

Sunday, February 13, 2011

February Agape

Pax Christi Victoria Inc., International Christian Peace Movement

You are invited to the First Agape of 2011

Youth: Towards a Global Culture?

Dahlia Khatab & Rashid Alshakshir

are two LaTrobe students who have taken part in the Young Muslims leadership Programme of the Centre for Dialogue.

Pax Christi sponsored them to attend the Fourth Inter-Civilizational Youth Engagement Program 2010 Consultation in Kuala Lumpur on

"Youth: Towards a Global Culture?"

The purpose of the consultation was:

* To develop a deeper understanding of global challenges and how the young can help in their resolution and
* To identify and examine universal spiritual and moral values that can contribute towards justice, peace and harmony among the different communities and nations of the planet

Larry Marshall, the Director of the Young Muslim Leadership programme, will facilitate a dialogue with Dahlia and Rashid in which they will report on the consultation and invite us to dialogue with them on the issues.

Sunday 20 February 2011

at St John’s Uniting Church, cnr Glenhuntly Rd and Foster St. Elsternwick, Melways 67 J3, Elsternwick Station (Sandringham line,) Tram 67

Please note change of Venue

12.30 for 1 p.m.

We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.

Please BRING SOME FOOD TO SHARE
(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)

ALL WELCOME

Observations on events in Egypt

by Joseph Camilleri

There is one aspect to recent events in the Arab world, which has not drawn the attention it deserves. What we have witnessed first in Tunisia, and now more dramatically in Egypt, is one of the great nonviolent revolutions of the last 100 or more years. The revolution is all the more far-reaching in its implications in that it was forged entirely at the initiative of the Egyptian people with no support from and little understanding by the outside world. This was a pervasive revolution that touched and spread across the whole society and was constructed implicitly if not explicitly on the philosophy and techniques of nonviolence. I would venture to advance four additional propositions:

1. The significance of this revolution is that it was nurtured and executed by an Arab and predominantly Muslim society - a possibility which the world generally and the West in particular had until now dismissed as beyond the realm of the feasible -- the conventional wisdom has been that Arabs and Muslims were simply not equipped to envisage an alternative to, let alone directly confront, the politics of tyranny and repression.

2. The revolution has once again demonstrated the power of nonviolence. The key to this does not lie so much in the fact that a tyrant was eventually removed from office. Rather it lies in the fact that the moral integrity of the revolution was so potent that even political elites in the West and in Israel, strong supporters of the Mubarak regime for more than three decades, were reduced to little more than passive spectators. Indeed, the revolution was emotively and intellectually so powerful that in the end the President of the United States had no option but to give it his public and unreserved support. In this there are immense implications for other parts of the Arab world, not least for Palestine.

3. This revolution is not just another re-enactment of the revolutions led by Gandhi or Martin Luther King. It is innovative in ways that will take a long time to assess. But even now we can fairly say that never before has a movement of this kind made such effective use of the new information technology to foster the politics of empowerment and participation - and never before has such a symbolically effective use been made of the uninterrupted occupation of public spaces, and in particular of the city square as the preferred site for the expression of the popular will.

4. To date much western official and unofficial comment has emphasised the prospects for 'freedom' and democracy, with particular reference to free and fair elections. Yet, this is but one part of the story. The social movement that has spread across the Arab world is first and foremost a movement crying out for social justice - for an end to corruption, to abject poverty, to grotesque inequalities, to patterns of aid, trade and investment that have consistently favoured the rich and disadvantaged the poor. Should the protests of the last few weeks result in democratic elections that leave the unjust economic arrangements of the last few decades more or less intact (possibly with tacit Western support), this would indeed be a pyrrhic victory.

Also see the article by John Horgan, ‘Egypt's revolution vindicates Gene Sharp's theory of nonviolent activism’, http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=egypts-revolution-vindicates-gene-s-2011-02-11

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

December Agape

Pax Christi Victoria Inc., International Christian Peace Movement

You are invited to the December Agape

Engaging the church on Afghanistan

As the war in Afghanistan drifts on Australia’s place in it becomes more and more questionable. Promoting debate and discussion in Afghanistan has been frustrating and difficult in face of community indifference. This indifference seems to be shared by the churches.

How can we challenge and encourage the church’s to engage the issue and bring it to the attention of their members?

We have invited representatives from the Justice Unit of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and the Justice and International Mission Unit of the Uniting Church in Victoria to meet with us to discuss how the church might pick up the issue

Sunday December 12

at St John’s Uniting Church, cnr Glenhuntly Rd and Foster St. Elsternwick, Melways 67 J3, Elsternwick Station (Sandringham line,) Tram 67
Please note change of Venue

12.30 for 1 p.m.

We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.
Please BRING FOOD TO SHARE

(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)

ALL WELCOME

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Pax Christi Victoria AGM and Agape

You are invited to The Annual Meeting of Pax Christi Victoria Inc., International Christian Peace Movement


“Where to for the Peace Movement”
Speaker Caz Coleman, Hotham Mission Asylum Seekers project

Reports on what we have achieved in 2010, our vision for 2011, and
election of 2011 committee etc.


Sunday November 21

at Kildara, rear 39 Stanhope Street, East Malvern.

1.45 p,m. after a shared meal beginning at 1 p.m. (Hot food by 12.30 p.m.)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

October Agape

Pax Christi Victoria Inc.
International Christian Peace Movement

You are invited to the October Agape

FAITH, SHARED WISDOM AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

Joe & Rita Camilleri

Joe and Rita have just attended an international interfaith consultation in Kuala Lumpur which Joe and Ian Fry helped to plan and organise. The consultation was attended by distinguished international figures including the Hon. Malcolm Fraser, Judge Christopher Weeramantry, Dr Chandra Muzaffar, and Bishop Philip Huggins. Joe and Rita will report on the consultation and its importance for us.

Sunday October 17

at St John’s Uniting Church, cnr Glenhuntly Rd and Foster St. Elsternwick, Melways 67 J3, Elsternwick Station (Sandringham line,) Tram 67

Please note change of Venue

12.30 for 1 p.m.

We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.
Please BRING SOME FOOD TO SHARE

(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)

ALL WELCOME