Saturday 27 March 2021

Syria is Lebanon’s lung … and its oxygen سورية رئة لبنان… وأوكسجينه

 **English Machine translation Please scroll down for the Arabic original version **

Syria is Lebanon’s lung … and its oxygen


Nasser Kandil

– Two sides of the same truth are revealed by the moment of Lebanese need and the Syrian response, imposed by the necessities of an open confrontation with the Corona epidemic, in extremely harsh conditions for the two countries. The first aspect is the superiority of what God had created over that which mankind could make. As the late President Hafez al-Assad used to say about the relationship between Syria and Lebanon, “What God combined cannot separate the human beings,” and what Napoleon described as the tyranny of geography, and common destiny in accordance with the ties of history, geography as formulated in the Lebanese constitution – Taif Accord, on the distinctive relationship between Lebanon and Syria. The second aspect is the spiritual view of Syria’s Assad towards Lebanon, though a lot of its politicians to attack and insult Syria, and though Syria is besieged and suffering more than Lebanon should not in a moment of hardship, and distress hold Lebanon accountable for the guilt of these people. Assad do not hesitate to meet the of Lebanon’s needs, shared the oxygen as bread with the Lebanese brother, without distinguishing who will receive this oxygen between supporters and opponents of Syria.

Lebanon is in the geography between the sea that is closed due to weather conditions, and occupied Palestine is a usurping enemy, and the brother Syria that evades most of Lebanon’s political ally and opponent of Syria, each with calculations and proportions,

– Yesterday, Lebanon faced a very dangerous black moment, with the Minister of Health reporting to the oxygen supply companies that it was impossible to cover the hospital’s needs from local production after the ship carrying imported oxygen could not arrive due to weather conditions that will last for days that cannot be expected. What would he do and hundreds of patients are living on oxygen, the time is narrowing, and the disaster is approaching, Lebanon is in the middle of a long-term conflict, in the geography between the closed sea due, and occupied Palestine and Syria, the brother of Lebanon, is politically divided between the ally and the opponent of Syria, and both have its calculations, pushing towards evading the responsibility of opening the channels of cooperation with Syria , once under the pretext of not angering the Americans, and once under the pretext of not angering Saudi Arabia, and times of fear of punishment, fear of media blackmail, or exposure to the tongues of haters or wage earners, and the Health Minister knew that the Syrian blame is too high on Lebanese officials. He knows that Syria is in more severe conditions than Lebanon, and is besieged and surgically injured, and may not be able to lend a helping hand, or it may hesitate to do so as a result of a sense of grievance and the assumption of intent, a kind of opportunism, but there is no choice, so the Minister knocked on the door. Within a few hours, the answer was met. The doors of Damascus are open to you, and President Bashar Al-Assad is directing to secure all possible surplus oxygen for Lebanon.

– The immediate answer in Syria is yes, when any request from a brother, especially Lebanon, Lebanon, in Syria’s view, is the resistance that defeated the occupation and defended the Arabs. Syria and its president have acted according to a value ladder that leads Syrian positions. And for those who do not know, they must learn to know that that there is no NO in such cases, even if it is the reason for it is the lack of capacity. It is a difficult decision for Syria, this has happened repeatedly with Lebanon, and it happened with others. On the day Jordan needed water and wheat, Syria did not hesitate to extend a helping hand without favor, without requesting in return, and without distinguishing between allies and opponents, which is difficult for many to understand, especially in Lebanon, whose officials praise Saudi Arabia morning and evening, seeks to appease it, under the pretext of its anger at Lebanese positions that do not satisfy it, and punishes all of Lebanon under its pretext, so President Michel Aoun, though he is a friend of Syria, and a Hezbollah ally choses to visited KSA, has not visited Syria and has not yet responded to an Iranian invitation to visit, and despite the “Saudi phobia” that the Lebanese live in, Saudi Arabia prevents its tourists who spend their luxury money from visiting Lebanon in the hope of its fall, hoping that some of its stones will fall at the head of the resistance.

– The thorn tree, no matter how hard it is, cannot give a reward to the needy, and the thorn trees of the shadows do not carry the needy from him.

In the past we used to talk about the Lebanese-Syrian relationship, so we metaphorically say that Syria is the lung of Lebanon, with the intention of referring to it being its economic and natural depth, and this fact that does not change, Syria, is Lebanon’s lungs and oxygen, what God has gathered can’t be divided by human beings.


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سورية رئة لبنان… وأوكسجينه


ناصر قنديل

وجهان لحقيقة واحدة تظهرهما لحظة الاستعانة اللبنانية والتلبية السورية، التي فرضتها ضرورات المواجهة المفتوحة مع وباء كورونا، في ظروف شديدة القسوة على البلدين. الوجه الأول هو، تفوّق ما خلقه الله على ما يصنعه بنو البشر، كما كان يقول الرئيس الراحل حافظ الأسد عن علاقة سورية ولبنان، «ما جمعه الله لا يفرقه بنو البشر»، وما كان يصفه نابوليون باستبداد الجغرافيا، وما يصفه الدستور اللبناني وفقاً لما تمّت صياغته في اتفاق الطائف، بالعلاقة المميّزة بين لبنان وسورية وفقاً لروابط التاريخ والجغرافيا والمصير المشترك، والوجه الثاني هو الروحية التي تنظر من خلالها سورية نحو لبنان، وعلى رأس سورية رئيسها الدكتور بشار الأسد. فلبنان الذي يخرج الكثير من سياسييه للتطاول على سورية لا يجوز أن يحاسب شعبه في لحظة ضيق بجريرة هؤلاء، ولو كانت سورية محاصرة وتعاني ضيقاً أكثر من لبنان، وهو يتردد في تلبية حاجاتها في لحظات الضيق، فإنها تقتسم الأوكسجين كما الخبز مع الشقيق اللبناني، من دون تمييز في هوية مَن سيتلقى هذا الأوكسجين بين مؤيد ومعارض لسورية.

واجه لبنان بالأمس لحظة سوداء شديدة الخطورة، مع تبلّغ وزير الصحة من شركات توريد الأوكسجين، استحالة تغطية حاجات المستشفيات من الإنتاج المحلي بعدما تعذر وصول الباخرة التي تحمل الأوكسجين المستورد، فماذا عساه يفعل ومئات المرضى يعتاشون على الأوكسجين، والمهلة تضيق، والكارثة تقترب، فوضع الحسابات الصغيرة والمريضة جانباً، لبنان في الجغرافيا بين البحر المغلق بسبب أحوال جوية ستستمر لأيام لا يمكن انتظارها، وفلسطين المحتلة حيث عدو غاصب، وسورية الشقيق الذي يتهرّب أغلب لبنان السياسي الحليف والخصم لسورية، كل بحسابات وبنسب، من تحمّل مسؤولية فتح قنوات التعاون معها، مرّة بذريعة عدم إغضاب الأميركي، ومرة بذريعة عدم استغضاب السعودية، ومرات خشية العقوبات، وخشية الابتزاز الإعلاميّ، أو التعرّض لألسنة الحاقدين أو المأجورين أو المستأجرين، وكان يعلم الوزير أن العتب السوري كبير على المسؤولين اللبنانيين، ولو كان عتباً صامتاً على الحلفاء، وتجاهلاً لسواهم، ويعلم الوزير أن سورية في ظروف أشد قسوة من ظروف لبنان، وهي محاصرة ومصابة بالجراحات، وقد لا تكون قادرة على مد يد العون، أو قد تتردّد بفعل ذلك نتيجة الشعور بالمظلوميّة وافتراض القصد نوعاً من الانتهازيّة، لكن لا خيار، فغامر الوزير على الضفتين ودق الباب. وخلال ساعات قليلة لقي الجواب، أبواب دمشق مفتوحة لكم وتوجيه الرئيس بشار الأسد تأمين كل الفائض الممكن من الأوكسجين للبنان.

ليس في المشهد أي فرص ليكون الموقف محكوماً بالحسابات المتصلة بما يفكّر به المرضى النفسيّون الذين يتعاطون السياسة بعقدهم وأحقادهم، فقد تصرّفت سورية ورئيسها وفق سلم قيم يقود مواقف سورية بصورة تلقائية وعفوية نابعة من اليقين، لا تحتاج لفحص وحسابات ودراسة. فالجواب الفوريّ في سورية هو نعم، عند ورود أي طلب من شقيق، وخصوصاً لبنان، فلبنان بنظر سورية هو المقاومة التي هزمت الاحتلال وأعزّت العرب ونصرت سورية، ولمن لا يعرف، يجب أن يتعلّم أن يعرف، أن اللا في مثل هذه الحالات، حتى لو كان سببها عدم توفر القدرة، هي قرار صعب على سورية، وهو الذي يحتاج الى دراسات وفحص وتدقيق، فلربما أظهر ذلك فرصاً جديدة لنعم مخبأة، تفادياً لقول لا، وقد حدث هذا مراراً مع لبنان، وحدث مع غير لبنان، فيوم احتاج الأردن وهو يخاصم سورية للماء وللقمح، لم تتردّد سورية في مد يد العون من دون منة، ومن دون طلب مقابل، ومن دون تمييز من يحبها عمن يكيد لها. فهي سورية التي يصعب على الكثيرين فهم أن تفكر بهذه الطريقة، خصوصاً بين اللبنانيين، فلبنان الذي يكيل مسؤولوه صبح ومساء المديح للسعودية سعياً لاسترضائها، بذريعة غضبها من مواقف لبنانية لا ترضيها، وتعاقب لبنان كله بذريعتها، فيخصّها بأول زيارة لرئيسه نحو الخارج، وهو صديق سورية ولم يزرها بعد كرئيس، وهو شريك حزب الله في تفاهم تاريخيّ ولم يلبِّ بعد دعوة إيرانيّة للزيارة، ورغم «السعودية فوبيا» التي يعيشها اللبنانيون، تمنع السعودية سياحها الذين ينفقون مال ترفهم، من زيارة لبنان أملاً بسقوطه عسى تسقط بعض حجارته على رأس المقاومة. لبنان هذا يصعب عليه تصديق أن سورية المحاصرة والجريحة والمظلومة والمعتدى على سمعتها، لا تبخل بأوكسجينها الأبيض الذي خبّأته ليومها الكوروني الأسود عندما يقصدها لبنان، ولا تنتظر ثمناً ولا تعويضاً، لكنها الحقيقة بلا تدخل، وفي لحظة ترسم الأقدار فرصة لمفاجأة تظهر لتصيب الجميع بالذهول، خصوصاً السفيرة التي استعرضت أمام الكاميرات توزيعها للكمامات على بعض السيارات العابرة قرب سفارتها ورواد سفاراتها الذين أصابتهم الهيستيريا من المشهد.

شجرة الشوك مهما أجهدت نفسها لا تستطيع أن تمنح فيئاً لمحتاج، والشجر الوارف الظلال لا يحمِّل المحتاج منّة ظلاله.

كنّا في الماضي نتحدث عن العلاقة اللبنانية السورية فنقول مجازاً إن سورية رئة لبنان، بقصد الإشارة لكونها عمقه الاقتصادي والطبيعي، وهذه الحقيقة التي لا تتغير، فإذ بالأقدار الصعبة تريد لنا أن نرى سورية رئة لبنان وأوكسجينه للتنفس فعلاً، عسانا نفهم أن ما جمعه الله لا يفرّقه بنو البشر.

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

SUSPENDED FOR REFUSING A COVID TEST!


It’s been a very strange few weeks, well if it could possibly get any stranger than it already is.

On the 16th February I uploaded a 30 minute video onto my YouTube channel, titled “Vaccination and Vacation or Sceptical Staycation?” The video accompanied an article which I have also published in print.

The video was taken down within 3 hours of being uploaded, it had been viewed by 4 people (yes a whopping 4 people) and bearing in mind the channel is less than 4 weeks old and has less than 10 subscribers! Someone was incredibly upset with the content I had produced but neglected to give me a reason for censoring it.

I subsequently found myself banned for the second time on YouTube, the previous ban was for re uploading a speech which I gave in Sheffield last summer that had reached 67.5k views on another channel before

before being taken down by YouTube. Free speech really is under the threat of total annihilation!

On the 28th Feb I arrived at work (yes, I work full time, 48 hours per week as well as writing and researching, no furlough for me!) at 6 a.m. where it quickly transpired, that the company I work for, had suddenly decided to introduce ‘on the spot’ covid testing!

I entered the building and was met by someone I’d never met previously (who was wearing a Hi-Viz vest, so he must’ve been important!) and was told “You need to take a covid test mate.” I politely responded by explaining to the newly appointed Hi-Viz Health Enforcement Officer (he was a supervisor apparently), that “I don’t need to take any test and will not be doing as I’m not sick or showing any symptoms.”

“If you don’t take the test you’ll be immediately suspended and face disciplinary action.” I was told.

I was completely taken by surprise and was amazed that this individual, who had been given the task of herding people into a temporary testing facility (basically an office with rearranged furniture) had no clue that what he was doing or what he was instructing people to do, was completely unethical and unlawful.

I replied by attempting to appeal to his common sense, with “Really? You do realise that I have inalienable rights to bodily integrity and what you have just said is totally unlawful, don’t you? Are you threatening me with disciplinary action should I not consent to an invasive medical procedure? Because that would be coercion.”

He reasoned his instruction with “It’s no different to a drugs and alcohol test.”

I went on to explain to him that the covid test is nothing like a drugs and alcohol test and that the drugs and alcohol test is consensual and part of the terms and conditions within the contract of my employment, should I be suspected of being drunk or under the influence of drugs whilst at work.

I also added that the covid test is an invasive medical procedure which requires the appropriate training, as there is a danger that an untrained person could cause injury by piercing the blood brain barrier.

I asked him if the person performing the test had any medical qualifications at all (she didn’t and is in fact in the vulnerable group for covid, as she has a child at home with a respiratory issue!!) and what training they had received.

I was told that the person overseeing the test had been trained and was instructing others to perform their own tests. I asked what training she’d had that qualified her to instruct people to perform invasive medical tests on themselves and received no response.

After a lengthy debate with the obviously unqualified Hi-Viz Health Enforcement Officer, whilst in full view of roughly thirtyish other people crammed into an open office, it was decided that I was suspended on full pay pending an investigation for the allegation of ‘Refusing a reasonable management instruction, refusing a lateral flow test’ which could result in disciplinary action. I was handed a letter of suspension in full view of the gawping group of willing test subjects and told “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

This entire incident was completely wrong on so many levels I was stunned that it was actually happening and went home in sheer amazement.

I arrived back home at 6.30a.m. Much to the confusion of my partner (who is in the medical profession) who was in complete disbelief when I told her the full story over a cup of coffee. I then typed up the entire incident as a statement whilst it was still fresh in my mind so as not to forget any details. (I have attached a copy of the suspension letter and my statement at the end of this article should you wish to read my version of the whole encounter).

On the 3rd March I was invited into an interview with HR regarding the allegations and subsequent suspension which lasted roughly 30 mins.

I handed them a pre prepared statement containing my version of events from the incident. I then read it out for the record. I was asked a couple rather pointless questions, which aren’t even worth mentioning, before handing them my written conclusion. I read it out for the record and is as follows.

I do not accept the allegations that I refused a “reasonable management request”. (By refusing a lateral flow test.)

The current government guidelines on testing for covid in the work place are quite clear.

Government guidelines state that employers have a duty to protect the health and safety of their employees, it is likely that they can reasonably instruct an employee exhibiting symptoms to be tested.

However, it may not be reasonable for the employer to require an employee to be tested, if they are not exhibiting symptoms (for example, if they are part of a testing programme to identify possible asymptomatic cases).

The current government guidelines state that if I have exhibit symptoms of covid then I should report to a testing centre to take an RT – PCR test and that testing requires my consent, as the tests are an invasive medical procedure.

Should I exhibit symptoms, I would not attend my place of work and I would consult the government’s guidelines.

I had received no prior communication from (work place omitted) before the 28/02/21, that I would be required to give my consent to take a test for covid.

I work alone and outside in a huge yard area, where I have close to zero physical interaction with any other person throughout my working day, therefore there are no reasonable grounds to:-

a) Reasonably suspect that I am asymptomatically infected with covid or

b) That I am considered to be in a category of risk that would potentially increase the spread of covid.

Taking into consideration the above information, I cannot accept that I did not follow a reasonable management request.

I am of the view that I exercised my inalienable rights to privacy, confidentiality and bodily integrity which were completely ignored.

I do not believe that the health and safety obligations within my contract of employment were applied to me at any time during the incident.

On reflection, however, I am of the view that there are several potential breeches of my contract of employment.”

I handed over a pre prepared list of ten questions which I would require the answers, prior to any disciplinary hearing, should one go ahead. Those questions can be found at the end of the article should you wish to read them.

The interview concluded and I left, pondering the possible disciplinary hearing which I had no doubt would soon take place. To my astonishment it never did!

Instead I received a phone call from a senior manager apologising to me for what had happened and that the allegations had been dropped and I was free to return to work on Monday 9th March.

I was totally shocked, particularly when considering the current climate we are in. I had been looking passed returning to work and pondering my future post dismissal and was feeling rather bleak about the whole thing but despite my worries I stood my ground and I won! A small but very significant little victory!

I am in no doubt that there will be more battles to fight in this war of medical tyranny and with certainty, the enemy along with their army of Hi-Viz Health Enforcement Officers, will be planning other attacks on freedom and liberty but for now I have survived to fight another day.

I am an ex Royal Marines Commando and my gut instinct will always be to stand and fight. I understand that not everyone is able to do the same and I would never criticise them for that but I could not justify, not putting into practice, that which I encourage others to do. I have never and will never encourage someone to do something, which I am not prepared to do myself.

These are testing times where every little victory matters, however small and we must push back where we can, however we can!  

If you wish to read the statements, questions and letter of suspension, then continue on. I have left out the name of my employer and those involved, as I still work there and would be in breach of my contract of employment should I reveal such details whilst still employed there.

I would further like to add that this is a personal experience and I am not advising or encouraging anyone to imitate my actions nor do I give advice in any legal capacity.

I believe it is everyone’s personal responsibility to educate themselves on their inalienable rights and exercise them where they feel they are obliged to.

MY STATEMENT OF THE INCIDENT

1. I arrived to (work place omitted) at 0554hrs on 28/02/2021, which is my normal place of work. I am employed as a (title omitted). My duties are to (job description omitted).

2. On entering the building, I was immediately met in the main entrance, by a person unknown to me, who did not identify themselves to me and immediately instructed me to take a test for covid 19.

3. I asked why I was being instructed to take a covid test and was simply told that “Everyone was being tested.”

4. I refused to take the test on the grounds that I was not showing symptoms of covid 19, I was not ill, I had not been in contact with anyone showing symptoms of covid and that any test would require my consent.

5. I was instantly threatened with suspension should I not comply with the testing that was being carried out.

6. I explained that it was unlawful to coerce me into an invasive medical procedure and that my inalienable rights to bodily integrity were being disregarded as a result of the attempted coercion.

7. This was refuted by the person instructing me to take the test who went on to inform me that “The covid test is like the Drugs and Alcohol test and if you refuse to take it you will be suspended and face possible disciplinary action.”

8. I again pointed out that that statement alone was coercion and unlawful. I also added that the drugs and alcohol tests were totally different and that they were part of a consensual contract of employment.

9.  I explained that being ordered to participate in an invasive medical procedure at the behest of anyone who simply orders me to, is definitely not within the terms and conditions of my contract of employment.

10. I was concerned that the conditions of the test were unsafe and that the area of testing was inappropriate for several reasons.

11.  I explained my reservations regarding the inaccurate covid testing system which was being used, the way in which it was being used and the setting in which it was being performed, was of a huge concern.

The test produces high rates of false positives which wrongly inform the individual being tested that they are positive resulting in financial loss due to forced quarantining.

Whilst being performed by non-medically qualified staff, the chances of test inaccuracy is dramatically enhanced due to possible cross contamination because the whole of the workforce were all being ushered into the same room at the same time, not socially distancing and not wearing any face coverings. This is not in line with the standards of a medical testing facility.

I also had concerns that the area had not been suitably disinfected or prepared to the required standard of a medical testing facility.

12. I asked if there was a Medically Qualified person on site performing the testing procedure, as the action of swabbing the nasal passage can be dangerous when performed by unqualified people and can result in injury or damage to the blood brain barrier.

13. I was told that the person performing the test had been trained.

14. I asked who was performing the test and what training they had received.

15. I was then told that members of staff were performing their own tests. I was at this point extremely concerned bordering on horrified at such a cavalier approach to my health and safety.

16. I explained that could be a particularly dangerous and those performing procedures on themselves could injure themselves if they pierce their blood brain barrier.

17. I then asked if I was being suspended because if I was, then I needed to be going home immediately due to the unsafe environment I was in and the level of distress this had caused me.

18. I was told by another member of staff, who instructed me to go into the room where everyone was being tested because someone wanted my Family name.

19. I told this person, that whoever required my details should come out of the crowded room, which I assumed was suspected of a covid outbreak and get my details as I was not prepared to enter on the grounds of safety.

20. This person then came back and said “that I had to go in there as HR were in there.”

21. I asked this person to identify himself. He said “I’m just (name omitted).”

22. I informed (name omitted) that “this was a private matter” and that “I do not ‘need’ (as he put it) to go anywhere and that I do not take orders from strangers where my health is concerned.” I added that he should also mind his own business and repeated that should someone require my details that they come out and get them.

23. I was then shouted at by the security guard who said “it’s no good arguing with us, it’s not our rules”. Or words to that effect.

24. I responded by saying that “they were responsible for facilitating a procedure that could potentially cause injury and that they were involving themselves in the ‘argument’ by shouting comments.”

23. I was then handed a sheet of paper, informing me that I was suspended on full pay for “Refusing a reasonable management request” (refusing a lateral flow test for covid).

24. The person who handed me the letter did not identify himself, he did not take me to a private area to explain what was happening and simply said “don’t shoot the messenger”.

25. Not at any point during the incident was I offered the option of a private area to discuss any of the concerns I had raised, nor was I asked if I was comfortable discussing this in full view of the entire workforce. I have the right to privacy and confidentiality which was not afforded to me at all during this incident.

26. Throughout the incident which lasted roughly 20 minutes, I was subjected to several members of staff who found it highly appropriate to comment and voice their opinions on what should have been a private conversation between myself and a manager.

27. I found the entire experience to be, distressing, extremely humiliating and totally unprofessional.

28. I then left the premises, on receiving the letter of suspension.

QUESTIONS I HAD PREPARED FOR POSSIBLE DISCIPLINARY HEARING

1. What was the purpose of the mass testing on the date of the incident?

2. Who was given the responsibility for overseeing the testing?

3. What Medical Qualifications does the person responsible for overseeing the testing have?

4. What preparations were made in the area to be used for testing?

5. Was suitable insurance in place on the date of the incident, to cover any injury which could be sustained, as a direct result of Negligent Medical Procedures?

6. Why, was prior notice of testing not given, including an explanation for the requirement to be tested, as testing requires consent?

7. Why was I not taken to a private area to discuss my concerns to protect my confidentiality? And alleviate my clear and obvious distress?

8. Why were people allowed to form in a huge group whilst observing none of the government guidelines regarding social distancing or face coverings?

9. Why wasn’t there a qualified professional there to answer my concerns?

10. Which Laws, contractual or otherwise did the person suspending me from my duties, have the authority to behave in such an inappropriate, unethical and unprofessional manner?

THE LETTER OF SUSPENSION

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Suez Canal: Sisi is a danger not only to Egypt, but to the world


David Hearst is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye. He is a commentator and speaker on the region and analyst on Saudi Arabia. He was The Guardian’s foreign leader writer, and was correspondent in Russia, Europe, and Belfast. He joined the Guardian from The Scotsman, where he was education correspondent.

David Hearst

26 March 2021 18:16 UT

Egyptian government’s abject failure in responding to the Suez closure highlights the threat this regime poses to international trade and stability

Sisi
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the UN in New York in 2019 (AFP)

When a 35km expansion of the Suez Canal was opened six years ago, banners appeared on the streets of Cairo proclaiming it to be Egypt’s “gift to the world“.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi welcomed foreign leaders on a yacht. Helicopters and jets performed a fly-by. The expansion was hailed as a national triumph and a turning point after years of instability.

The Egyptian government is a practised liar. It lies to its own people every day, but in times of crisis, it also lies to the international community

When the Suez Canal was closed unceremoniously by a 400-metre container ship hitting the bank in a dust storm on Tuesday, there was silence. For 26 hours, there was not a word about the closed canal, the shipping backing up in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, or of the Ever Given itself.

Instead, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) issued a media statement announcing the successful transit of an Italian cruise ship with 65 Covid-19 cases aboard.

There was a media blackout. It was only on Wednesday that the lying started in earnest, with the first official statement noting that efforts were “continuing to reopen the canal”. The SCA downplayed the impacts on navigation, sending a “message of assurance that the navigation will continue as usual”. As if to reinforce that message, the authority allowed a convoy of ships to enter from the northern end in Port Said on 24 March.

Feeding the propaganda mill

The authority warned journalists not to heed any news or rumours about the most serious incident to block the canal since the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, other than statements coming from them. Egyptian journalists did not need any encouragement to toe the line. They fed the propaganda mill, celebrating the SCA’s statement and claiming the ship had been refloated. They even tried to demonstrate this with satellite images, although the images themselves still showed the ship firmly wedged in place. 

The truth was even concealed from international shippers. The Gulf Agency Egypt shipping company quoted the SCA as saying that the container ship stranded in the canal for more than a day had been partially refloated and was standing alongside the bank, and that traffic would resume shortly.

The same story was fed to Lloyd’s List, which reported seeing an email from the Egyptian company sent to the China Shipowners’ Association: “We are still waiting confirmed information for the towing direction. Convoy and traffic will be back to normal within [a] very short time as soon as the vessel is towed to another position,” read the email, based on information provided directly by the SCA early on Wednesday.

Satellite imagery shows tug boats and dredgers attempting to free a ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal on 26 March 2021 (Satellite image c.2021 Maxar Technologies/AFP)
Satellite imagery shows tug boats and dredgers attempting to free the ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal on 26 March 2021 (Satellite image c.2021 Maxar Technologies/AFP)

On Thursday, two days after the chaos had started, the SCA officially announced that navigation had been suspended.

The Egyptian government is a practised liar. It lies to its own people every day, but, in times of crisis, it also lies to the international community. 

When a Russian passenger jet was brought down in 2015 by an Islamic State (IS) missile 23 minutes into a flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg, Russia and the UK instantly cancelled all flights to the Red Sea resort.

Two harsh lessons

But it is difficult to keep maintaining that a ship the size of the Ever Given is floating, when it so evidently isn’t.

However the Suez Canal crisis is resolved, this incident has taught the world two harsh lessons: how important the canal and Egypt still are for international shipping, and how disastrously and incompetently both are being run.Egypt’s Suez Canal: Why does its closure matter?

The incompetence of Sisi’s dictatorship, in other words, is not just a matter of international concern on the issues of human rights and the rule of law. Sisi’s incompetence threatens a major international waterway.

In the immediate future, this week’s Suez crisis could not have happened at a worse moment. It reinforces the interest of oil-and-gas-producing Gulf states in exploring ways to bypass the canal by routing their product through Israel. The Emirati normalisation deal with Israel has led to a tidal wave of contracts and projects, each of which spells an existential threat to Egypt’s monopoly on this traffic.

Whether through a long-neglected pipeline built by the shah of Iran, new internet cable or a railway line, or even a canal through the Negev desert – no greater push could be given to finding ways of bypassing the Suez Canal and Egypt than by the Egyptian reaction to an incident of this magnitude.

Sisi’s disastrous rule

In the longer term, there is now a clear pattern of decline and disaster to Sisi’s rule. Above and beyond all the other issues in which he has embroiled his country – backing the wrong side in Libya, a witch hunt against the Muslim Brotherhood at home and abroad – Sisi really had two existential things to worry about. He has failed in both.

The first was the Suez Canal; the second was maintaining the water levels of the Nile. Sisi laughed and ridiculed his boss, former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, for raising concerns about the dam Ethiopia was building in 2012, and arranged for a leak of a private meeting to embarrass the president. 

The line from the Egyptian army was that the issue was too serious for a mere Muslim Brotherhood president to handle. So they shelved the issue, and Sisi then compounded his mistake by signing away Egypt’s claim in an agreement with Ethiopia and Sudan in 2015. Now, he is reportedly considering military action, just weeks before the dam – which has long been completed – gets its second crucial filling

Instead of concentrating his meagre resources on the two issues that really matter to his country, Sisi has spent all his time obsessed with his image

Instead of concentrating his meagre resources on the two issues that really matter to his country, Sisi has spent all his time obsessed with his image. 

A revealing window into Sisi’s real priorities in the years in which he has run Egypt into the ground can be seen in the official record of lobbyists working for the Egyptian government, filed with the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

An investigation of these official records conducted by a group of Egyptian journalists at Sasapost reveals how the lobbying operation in Washington went into overdrive after the 2013 Rabaa massacre and the suspension of $260m in US military aid, a fraction of the total $1.3bn package.

Sisi’s government paid the Glover Park Group $250,000 a month to lobby senior members of Congress who opposed him, such as Senators Lindsey Graham and the late John McCain. Glover Park spent two years working on Graham until he reversed his position, Sasapost reported. Between 2013 and 2019, Sisi paid this company alone $13.25m – a huge price in the Washington lobby market.

Whitewashing the regime

What were Egypt’s concerns in Washington? Whitewashing Sisi’s image, targeting the American right and Israel’s supporters, and focusing on “religious rights,” with Joe Biden about to enter the White House. In other words, everything that Sisi has spent his money on has been about his image. None of it has had anything to do with what really matters to his country.

But these are Sisi’s priorities. He has not uttered one word about the crisis going on in the Suez Canal. 

It is now commonplace to hear that Egypt is a failing state – a state that fails its citizens, one with depleted resources, a weakened economy plundered by the Egyptian army, and growing levels of poverty affecting tens of millions of people. 

The international community, however, has yet to wake up to the fact that Sisi is a danger not only to his people and his country but also to international trade and stability. Perhaps a big ship jammed into a tight space will do that for them.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

timeline suez canal

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The “Corona Crisis” and the War of “The Super-Rich” against the Earth’s Citizens




By Emanuel Pastreich

Global Research, March 26, 2021

All Global Research articles can be read in 27 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

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Corporations, multinational investment banks, and the super-rich that hide behind them have launched the final stage this year of a ruthless war of a tiny few against the great majority of humanity.

Although they pay off their puppets in the media to float happy tales of some happy resolution to the dire situation of the moment, they already know that the die is cast, that they are committed to a strategy of distracting, seeding division, undermining rational thinking and using a combination of blatant intimidation with open bribery to slowly, systematically, overpower and reduce to slavery 99.98% of the Earth’s population.

They know already, according to the calculations of their supercomputers, what will happen if they are not successful in this plan. They also know that catastrophic climate change and biodiversity loss will make it impossible for them to monopolize the wealth and the resources for long.

There is literally no limit to how far they will go.

The tools they use to pursue this war against the citizens of the Earth are technology, propaganda and disinformation campaigns, threats against individuals who display leadership skills and massive bribes for the leaders who are allowed to be covered in the media to represent the conservative and the progressive causes.

They also employ as part of this strategy an intimate knowledge of certain key weaknesses in the brain, and the potential for exploiting the human inclination to determine truth based on a vague sense of the mood of the herd, rather than logic. That is to say they are investing billions in hidden money to systematically create social pressure that makes citizens conform with pointless mandates for masks or vaccines that are launched from diverse platforms as a means of inducing the population to police itself.

Without such a strategy, the super-rich could not possibly seize control of the entire Earth.

There has been extensive research by corporations, and by the CIA and Department of Defense (government organizations exploited to hide the true entities demanding such research) into how humans can be manipulated without their knowledge, and compelled through imperceptible persuasion to permit, or even aid, their own disenfranchisement without us even being aware of this silent and invisible takeover.

Such operations have been undertaken before, but never on this global scale. New developments in super-computing and the global integration of, and deregulation of, finance, has made such a master plan possible for the first time.

Recent developments are best viewed as the final acceleration of a process by which corporations bribed and lobbied all authority figures in government and academics to go along with a process of privatization, commercialization, and automation that now means that a tiny handful of people can control every aspect of human experience in an absolute sense while the vast majority of citizens cannot even conceive of what is taking place. We have not reached that state yet, but Elon Musk, Bill Gates and others believe, based on the calculations of supercomputers, that it is now possible.

The super-rich has also invested wisely in the establishment of a panoply of sham activists, or toothless, “feel good, do nothing” NGOs.

These “movements” are allowed to appear in the corporate-controlled media, and they pretend to respond to corporate power, but they purposely discourage citizens from organizing themselves (they ask only for donations, or attendance at protests, but they pointedly do not empower people to form their own groups or achieve financial and ideological independence).

Such NGOs are silent about the mass manipulation of the media and of politics by global finance—even though that is the primary cause of the political problems we face.

If we follow the current trajectory, there will not be a single part of our lives that is completely controlled by a multinational corporation in the next few years.

We do not have that long to act.

Image on the right is from Natural News

The push for mandatory COVID-19 “vaccines” in the face of the overwhelming scientific evidence against them is not a matter of mistaken science or bad policy. It is rather a process of preparing government officials, doctors, reporters, and other media figures to follow orders from above that have no rational basis.

After this “softening-up process,” which is carefully calibrated on the basis of secret CIA torture programs designed to test the weaknesses of the human psyche, a rougher and more brutal form of the rule can be implemented.

The mask mandate was the first step in the implementation of this form of massive psychological warfare. It is, to use the technical term, a slow “rape of the mind.”

The enormous restructuring of governance and the economy described by the World Economic Forum as the “Great Reset” is not a secret and anyone who takes the time to read that book, and related documents, can figure out about 70% of what is their agenda is.

The citizen will be convinced that he or she operates within a functional country and that there is some process by which the politicians at the top take actions on their behalf. But the super-rich cares nothing for nation-states and their populations and they use politicians to deflect attention away from themselves. Every time a politician takes a fall, it is to distract you from the predations of the rich. Every attack on minorities is a trick to get you hooked on race and diversity and distracted from the concentration of wealth.

We are increasingly subject to the whims of unaccountable global powers, and the intentionally render us passive, open to persuasion, and therefore incapable of resistance, by the media that is controlled by those powers.

The super-rich relies on two approaches to psychological manipulation that go back to the 1930s and before but have been perfected by recent research.

The first technique is the use of traumatic events that are reported on in a sensationalist and unscientific manner in the media so as to induce a deep sense of shock, disorientation and confusion in the population as a whole. The mental trauma of such events, whether the 9.11 incident, or the hyped-up COVID-19 crisis, or the “armed insurrection” at the Capitol, is used to induce passivity and receptivity to profound institutional shifts that would otherwise be impossible.

Naomi Klein describes this approach as the “shock doctrine” and although she hesitates to delve too deeply into the degree to which it has become national policy, she accurately traces the approach back to the torture programs designed to test the limits of the human psyche.

Such trauma affects the reactive and emotional part of the human brain known as the amygdala, bringing on a “fight or flight” response in the psyche that overrides the rational, integrative, response to external events that would be carried out by the prefrontal cortex in normal conditions.

Because we as individuals, and as populations, are unaware of how the amygdala has taken over decision making from the prefrontal cortex because of these engineered shocks, we are unable to organize, or even conceive of, a response to the real threat. Instead, we focus on the cooked-up threats offered to us by the commercial media like Islamic terrorism in the case of 9.11 or the spread of a dangerous virus in the case of the COVID-19 operation.

The second strategy is to induce a hypnotic state in the brain of the individual, and the population as a whole, through the constant repetition of certain themes and images through advertisements, commercials, images, and themes articulated in movies, TV shows, reporting, and even the packaging of products.

The stimulation alternates between the intentionally boring and distracting images and direct appeals to the pleasure centers of the brain such as the desire for food, for sexual arousal, or for pleasant experiences.

The advertisements promoting the enjoyment of food and encouraging low-level sexual arousal are not only, or even primarily, aimed at selling products. They are intended to induce a state of passivity in the population.

The CIA explains the process,

“Hypnosis is basically a technique which permits acquisition of direct access to the sensory motor cortex and pleasure centers, and lower cerebral (emotional) portions of the right side of the brain following successful disengagement of the stimulus screening function of the left hemisphere of the brain. The right hemisphere which functions as the noncritical, holistic, nonverbal and pattern-oriented component of the brain, appears to accept what the left hemisphere passes to it without question. Consequently, if the left hemisphere can be distracted either through boredom or through reduction to a soporific, semi-sleep state, external stimuli to include hypnotic suggestions are allowed to pass unchallenged into the right hemisphere where they are accepted and acted on directly.”

(FOIA document “Analysis and Assessment of Gateway Process” June 9, 1983 (US Army Intelligence and Security Command)

CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210016-5

The scale of this experiment in mass hypnosis to render the citizens of all the world passive, and unable to resist persuasion from authority figures is unprecedented. This process is being undertaken slowly, over months and years, following complex algorithms that are kept secret.

It is critical in this process that individuals be isolated from each other, unable to communicate except through mediums controlled by multinational corporations, and that they be offered only ineffective and superficial organizations to join organizations in which they will be incapable of participating in the decision-making process, or of effecting change. Quarantine, lockdowns, social distancing, and the promotion of a narcissistic consumption culture are critical to that process.

The result is that the citizens of the United States, and around the world, are being reduced to consumers of products supplied by multinational corporations who cannot even conceive of how the world has been radically transformed in this great reset.

They are being rendered passive and unresponsive so that the super-rich can quickly seize complete control of the systems by which countries are governed, by which money and finance are determined, the media by which information is distributed, the universities and research institutes by which authoritative perspectives backed by science are presented, the farms and distribution systems by which food is provided, the aquafers and irritation systems by which water is provided, and every other aspect of human experience.

When we awake from this slumber, if we ever do, we will discover that every aspect of our lives is controlled by unaccountable powers which we cannot understand, which we have no way to challenge and which will increase slowly and systematically the means by which we are made slaves, and, if necessary, destroyed.

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Emanuel Pastreich served as the president of the Asia Institute, a think tank with offices in Washington DC, Seoul, Tokyo and Hanoi. Pastreich also serves as director general of the Institute for Future Urban Environments. Pastreich declared his candidacy for president of the United States as an independent in February, 2020



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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!