Monday Roundup

So now there is peace in Gaza, and Ukraine and Russia are talking. Looking promising.

Both sides in the middle east conflict have agreed to a cease fire. This peace plan framework was the same the Hamas militants rejected a month ago. Why? Lets look at the evidence and see if we can read between the lines. Israel want peace, they have no plan to take over the world with their own ideology. Hamas has a jihad (holy war) against anyone who doesn't agree with their ideology. So reading between the lines, I would suggest that Hamas will use this time to re-arm, recruit some more soldiers, and probably digging some more tunnels. It would appear that the biggest problem, at the moment, to the middle east conflict is the militant jihad, and when you look at where Israel has been attacking in Gaza, it has been in the majority, Hamas connected buildings. I suspect that in about 3 weeks there'll be a rocket set off towards Israel, or a kidnapping/killing of an Israeli.

And so to Putin, saying that if Ukraine signs up with Europe, Russia looks to loose $3bn in trade, he will pout his bottom lip, and apply sanctions. Oh didums! This reminds me of the smart phone wars of litigation rather that innovation and competition. If Ukraine can get a better deal from Europe then so be it, that's the global market, global competition.

photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/385244727/">Stuck in Customs</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>

Is conflict a lifestyle?

   When is a war not a war? Its semantics and all in a word and its meaning. Or to put it another way - politics!    So Israel and Hamas are slugging it out and Israel is winning on the ground, but not doing too well in perception, although there are some out there who are putting things into perspective. The world see Israel hitting Palestinians while trying to get to Hamas, what the world doesn't see is the reason for Hamas doing the things they are doing. Hamas doesn't know peace! Hamas mandate is to bring Islam to the world, by force if necessary, and not just any Islam but their form of Islam. This reminds me of the conflict in Northern Ireland and the IRA. The question was, what would the IRA do when there was peace? Some of the IRA members had only known conflict and therefore they would be out of a job when there's peace, so they didn't want peace because otherwise they'd have nothing to fight for, nothing to do. And so to Hamas. When they've brought Islam to the world, what then, mission over, what do you do then? Sit do and have a chat over a coffee? What happens to all that built up anger? Does it just go away? I don't think so! Hamas has chosen a battle it knows it cannot win and therefore a fruitless persute! Why not do something you can continue to do even when the work is done. Its a lifestyle choice and Hamas doesn't have a longterm lifestyle!

In other conflicts like that in Syria are similar, in that they aren't fighting for freedom, but for their form of religious government. The reasons for the uprisings in the North Africa and Middle East came out of the "democratization" of Iraq. Democracy and Islam don't go hand in hand, but also when looking at South Africa, the voting isn't really done along party lines but tribal lines, so in the North African countries the system is being used for tribal means, not really for the good of the country. Its more to do really with aristocracy, similar to what is creeping into western democracy.

In tribal areas it is very difficult to bring democracy of the type used in the west because to be tribal chief you have to depose the incumbent. This was done in olden times by fighting to the death! Now, when you bring Islam into this culture, you have religious influence over the tribe and the fear of a "god" is greater than the fear of man. It is a recipe for conflict!    What is democracy? If you look back at where it came from, in simplistic form, its about the dissemination of power. Giving the locals the ability to rule themselves with a framework for reference. Democracy now seems to mean that you have a vote and that is all! (More on this in a later post).

Whats the solution to the conflict, simple really, a change in lifestyle! Far simpler said than done!