OPPOSE DRONE STRIKES ― A WAR CRIME!

1. On 12 December 2013, 15 civilians who were part of a wedding convoy were killed in an unmanned US drone attack in Central Yemen.

2. A Yemeni official has explained that the air strike was a mistake.

3. The missiles had missed their target. Three days earlier, another US drone had killed 3 persons driving on a road in Al-Qatan in the Hadramout province of Yemen.

4.  They were also civilians. The US based Human Rights Watch (HRW) had investigated 6 selected drone strikes since 2009 and concluded that 57 out of the 82 killed were civilians.

5. This included a pregnant woman and her 3 children killed in September 2012.

6. Another human rights group, Amnesty International (AI), had also examined suspected drone strikes between May 2012 and July 2013 in North Waziristan, Pakistan, and from the evidence available suggested that more than 30 civilians were killed in four of those air attacks.

7. A report released by the UN Assistance Mission and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights indicates that there were 2,754 civilian deaths and 4,805 injuries from drone strikes in 2012 alone in Yemen and Pakistan.

8. In response to various criticisms of these strikes, the US Administration insists that civilian casualties are “rare” in this particular mode of warfare which began in 2004. But the evidence, as we have shown, tells a different story.

9. The US Administration is also wrong when it argues that drones have been an effective weapon in the fight against terrorism.

10. On the contrary, it is because drone attacks have wiped out innocent civilians, including women and children that terrorism has increased.

11. An example would be the events that constitute the backdrop to the two recent drone strikes in Yemen.

12. The two drone strikes it seems were in retaliation to an Al-Qaeda attack on the Defence Ministry in Sana, Yemen’s capital, on 5 December 2013.

13. The attack killed 56 people.

14.While claiming responsibility for the heinous massacre, Al-Qaeda emphasised that it was carried out because of US drone strikes in Yemen that have been going on for years.

15. This is also true of Pakistan where Al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives on either side of the Pakistan –Afghanistan border become even more determined to commit acts of terror when they see innocent villagers with whom they often share bonds of kinship bombed out of existence by US drones.

16. It is not surprising therefore that a huge movement against drones has developed in Pakistan in recent years.

17. Both Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Opposition Leader, Imran Khan, are campaigning against drone attacks.

18, The Peshawar High Court has ruled that drone attacks are “illegal, inhumane, violate the UN Charter on human rights and constitute a war crime.”

19. In Yemen too, a significant segment of society is totally opposed to drone strikes though the US backed government of Mansour Al-Hadi acquiesces with them.

20. There is no sign yet to indicate that President Obama will abandon his drone policy. Both Yemen and Pakistan are vital to the US’s hegemonic power.

21 Yemen is adjacent to the Bab-el-Mandeb which connects the oil fields of the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and Europe.

22. Pakistan is strategically situated in relation to China and Russia and the rich oil fields of Central Asia.

23.The only way to get Obama to abandon his policy is for more citizen groups in Asia and the West to speak up against US drone strikes.

24.  Both the print and electronic media should also do much more to raise the awareness of the people so that they would be persuaded to act against this war crime. Isn’t it a shame that major media channels gave so little attention to the poor and innocent victims of the drone strikes a few days ago? S

by Dr. Chandra Muzaffar,

President, International Movement for a Just World (JUST, Malaysia.

THICK FACE, BLACK HEART

1. Thick Face Black Heart – Chi-Ning-Chu In a Nutshell:- Reclaim the killer instinct as a natural part of who you are.

2. In 1949, as Mao’s communist army closed in on shahngai, a family boarded what was to be that last commercial fright out of china.

3. Chi-Ning-Chu only three years old had been born into a world of affluence but when chi and her family landed in Taiwan, they will have to start all over again.

4. In her early twenties she moved again this time to the United States, two books accompanied her, the famous Art of war and Thick Black Theory.

5. There was something in this later book that Chu knew was important, published in 1911, she describes it as a frank discussion of the use of ruthlessness and hypocrisy that was such a challenge to the powerful and it was quickly banned.

6. The book would become an important source of Chu’s unique philosophy of life and business expressed in Thick Face Black Heart, the Asian path to thriving, winning and succeeding.

7. Thick Face Chu simply combines the Asian concept of face, that is saving face, and the western concept of a thick skin to make thick face, meaning a self-image that allows us to brush of criticism she observes that if you are willing to have people not like you, you will go far. Chu notes that the world has a tendency to accept our own judgment of ourselves.

8. If you exude, self-confidence people would naturally want to let you succeed.

9. Self-doubt creates a perception of incompetence the example given is for colonel Oliver North and the Iran-Contra Affair, because he never doubted his actions were those of a patriot not a criminal, the public and the court eventually believed him.

10. A man less convinced of his own righteousness would have been severely punished for his crimes and ostracize by the public.

11. What you believe about yourself, the world will believe about you.

12. Black Heart While the concept of think face relates to how others see you, the idea of black heart is about achieving your ends.

13. The black hearted person may seem as if they luck compassion, however compassion can be short sighted.

14. If a boss cannot bring himself to make a few employees redundant, he may witness the collapse of the whole business, sometimes to keep your goal and achieve the result that is better overall, you have to be perceived as bad.

15. Appreciate that everyone has a killer instinct, and sometimes we must draw on it.

16. There is a direct correlation between willingness to use your killer instinct and your success in life.

17. There degrees of think face black heartedness, some will do anything to achieve a result not caring about the effect on other.

18. This is the black heart of conmen and the wicked who eventually understand that most of their fair years are due to their character defects.

19. The higher level of black heartedness is reached when you are not driven by your shortcomings and emotions taking action that is driven by your true spirit.

20. Contrary to common understanding, a good man's action are not always gentle they may be ruthless, cold and dispassionate, the best surgeons are those who concentrate on the tusk ahead, minimizing pain for the patient.

21. They are cruel to be kind; this is the way of the warrior.

22.  Darkness and light Acknowledge that human beings are a combination of darkness and light the universe is full of opposites recurring another to exist.

23. To have the necessary drive to live life to the full you must appreciate and utilize all aspect of your character if you like to present yourself as sugar courted you may lose out on any opportunity that may require you to seem sewer or hardened.

24. If you are naturally negative, thinker make the most of it and do not try to adopt false positivity, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you must change yourself before you will have success, you can succeed just the way you are.

25. The problem with virtues that it can lead to stern or even violent righteousness.

26. If someone considers themselves virtue less, they lay ground for a witch hunt for people they consider to be lucking virtue.

27. The thick face black heart practitioner knows that virtue is a contrast, what matters is whether a person has the courage to express their full personality in their life and their work.

28. Deception without Deceit In the west people have drummed in them the concept of good and evil, black and white but the reality which most Asian people accept is that there are shades of grey.

29. You need to learn that you can be good and the art of deception without being deceitful. You must also appreciate that sometimes to achieve something great and worthy it’s difficult not to bring an element of deception in your actions.

30. The book highlights Abraham Lincoln, who in his slow ascend to power followed the majorities opinion about segregation and slavery.

31. He knew that if he hadn't he wouldn't have gained power, however with the solid electoral victory behind him he made the famous Gettysburg Address proclaiming ‘all man are created equal’ Dharma 

34. The word comes from scent script and mean to support, uphold and nourish it is the natural law that makes the world hung together in its divine coherence.

35. At a personal level, Dharma is the duty that is yours to fulfil in your lifetime, you cannot be a soldiers and refuse to fight, you cannot be a doctor and refuse to operate, if you are a writer you can’t work in a bank.

36. Once you commit yourself to your duty, the universe has a way of protecting you and freeing you from other worries. E-dharma is going against your purpose in life, which only gives you and world misery.

37. Chu looks at the former leaders of Philippine and Pakistan, Corazon Aquino, and Benazir Bhutto, Aquino adopted the patricidal style of her husband,

38. Bhutto the hard line style of her father, neither approach was right for the time in which they governed and both women altimetry failed.

39. They didn’t create their own political style, forgetting the Dharmaic lesson to be yourself. Yielding To survive and thrive, Chu says, amid the caning and the ruthless you have to acquire the ability to Yield, a thick face black heart would not always hit back if struck, they may just accept the blow if it means by appearing to yield it would help them to achieve their end. Gandhi’s powerful none violence is a good example.

40. In the Asian world Chu says, heroes aren’t judged for their powers in hunting, and shooting tigers but rather for their strength and ability to endure the humiliation of being pigs. Ditch Pride and Preciousness if you want to succeed.

41. Wealth The Chinese character for wealth is composed of two symbols, a sea shell an Asian symbol of trade, and a symbol that literary translated means brilliance but implies the uniqueness that each of us have in terms of a talent and ability.

42. Wealth therefore comes from selling what is unique about you in terms of a product or just you as a person.

43. Although money itself is a mystery whatever best expresses your brilliance will inevitably lead you to wealth it will free you from poverty and give you a mindset that attracts abundance.

#Shared By: MKR#

A LETTER TO MKR IN REGARDING "OUTSTANDING PERFORMER ATTITUDE"

Dear Brother MKR ,

I read and reread every line,on "MKR BLOG"; absorbing its simple practicality and sinking in its ideal. Very beautiful and inspiring indeed. I picture myself with optimism heading happily towards achieving my concrete goals if I hang on to all these golden rules.

If I were asked to choose between IQ and EQ,I would choose the latter-EQ.No doubt IQ is important but without the right attitude, even a genius from Harvard can be cheated easily or the other way round, others will be oppressed by him/her. I love my job especially when I am among my students.

I think I am a good worker in terms of punctuality,carrying out job specifications and teamwork.I reach at office 7.30a.m. and leave for home around 7.00p.m. I am not so defensive when criticisms are hurled at me.Only that when I get back home,my eyes will become puffy after pouring it all out to my other half. Hah..hah. However, I will stand up to my rights when circumstances grant me to do it.I will really stick to my guns.

I have three bosses. I respect all of them. Surely, I adore and idolise my workaholic,stern but understanding Principal. A pressing matter is I find it challenging to work with the other boss who has different opinions or rather values.Voicing out alternatives or improvements is always miscontrued as defying orders.She (oops!) went ballistic once when I raised my dissatisfaction in a meeting. I thought it was proper ,at least I was not backbiting.Maybe I was not tactical or diplomatic enough. Well-I must polish up my interpersonal skills and adhere to your advices concerning attitude..

Since then, our friendship was flushed down the drain. I tried to make up since I regard her as my superior but for some people they simply can't forgive and forget.I sometimes find myself at my wit's end on days when her emotion is like a roller coaster.

InsyaALLAH, I will print out what you have sent to me without changing one bit and place it on my desk here in my office ,practise it and be an outstanding performer.

1ST INTERNATIONAL IWA CONFERENCE ON HOLISTIC SLUDGE MANAGEMENT

The purpose of this conference is to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange the latest developments in sludge management. It will give possibilities to examine and discuss the different challenges connected to resource recovery through treatment and disposal of wastewater sludge. The conference covers sludge management and anaerobic digestion with a broad holistic system perspective. It includes the recycling of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen by focusing on upstream treatment to reduce harmful substances in wastewater, as well as on the production of biogas as a fuel for vehicles. The certification of treated sludge is another important condition for the possibilities to recycle sludge to farmland areas. We also want to share knowledge, practices and ideas for the future directions of process development. The sludge treatment is one of the key issues to be solved. The aim of the conference is to take a major step forward to where all aspects of sludge management are addressed. Proposed Themes: Production and utilization of biogas Nutrient recovery processes Processes for hygienization of sludge The need for a holistic approach including i.e. environmental effects from sludge handling/management in the total performance efficiency of wastewater treatment Use of sludge for energy generation including combustion and supercritical gasification Emerging contaminants in sludge – upstream separation and optimization to decrease negative effects by detoxification Physical and chemical pre-treatment processes, including chemical conditioning, thickening, dewatering, drying Modelling of anaerobic processes Methane emission from sludge treatment. MKR