₦airaland Forum

Just to chip in, the same technology is used by the British and American governments. . .so I heard on BBC news last night.

Afam:
Yes, I have heard of it. That was a popular phrase being used by Bush to refer to what he thinks is a war.

That Bush used that phrase doesn't make it have any meaning just as a lot of lies he told the world before invading Iraq amounted to nothing but a senseless lies by a clueless, blood thirsty and confused US president.

So, what Bush thinks is now your foundation for debate? Wonderful.

Just for the sake of argument if you believe that the war on terror justified the response by Bush and the gang then you should be ok with Ahmedinejad's response as regards "War on Western Imperialism".

I was actually thinking that as well

I do remember irregularities when George Bush was elected and there were no such media uproar to lead to protests

myspace:
Though one is tempted to feel sorry about this development, the truth is must be told; these are the kind of leaders we deserve.

Exactly!

We are a people who want the best things on a platter of gold. We like to complain about something but as soon as we get the chance, we become guilty of the very same thing and others will also complain about us. A vicious cycle of greedy people killing themselves

ezinne1212:
@Justgood, how often do you see British or American citizens as a focal point on international media? Our people will see others get caught, but feel they are smarter and go and do the same daft things. Please lets be honest with ourselves!

I'm not sure how much on the news you actually get but if you go and search, you will discover that very many Brits get caught smuggling/traffiking drugs in Asian countries. They almost always get away lightly because no one ever says they've done anything wrong. It's always about the justice system of the other nations.

Do you think the girl who got caught in Laos did not know what she was doing? She knew that the British government will pull out all stops to get her out of there. No one in this country has criticised that girl except those on nairaland.

@Berit, I think you're a very young girl. . .probably in your early 20s.

You married the wrong guy because you loved him BUT marriage requires more than just love. Now, you may be finding that out. The other guy may also be an opportunist- he sees your distress and he's willing to take advantage. I hope the other guy is not already telling you that he will marry you. Is the other guy another African? Does he have regualr papers? He could also just be someone who wants to write your name on his list of conquered chicks.

sorry to jump in.

Have you never met boys all of your growing life? Has none of them ever been interested enough in you?

This is absolute nonsense. Nigerians racist towards a white man Rubbish

Nigerians will rather take sides with a white man against their own than to be racist towards a white man. The person in question is an slowpoke and deserves no attention.

We do have serious problems as Nigerians. That is the reason we are usually the laughing stock of the world. If a British man is to be punished in any part of the world, British people never talk about what the man has done, they focus on whatever negatives they can find about the other country. Same applies for Americans (I think).

However if something happens to a Nigerian man, Nigerians will be the first to condemn the Nigerian man.

That is why we all suffer for our stupidity and we get no respect from other nationalities. Not because we are worse than them comparatively but because we are unable to seek our own good collectively.

Why are these people allowed to keep stolen wealth and then use the same to further impoverish the masses? They keep the stolen wealth, use it to put themselves in positions where they can steal more. . . and we all look on like LOOKMAN.

Pathetic

You all have a spirit of linguistic delusion.

This is what happens when you take too much Emu. You start speaking incoherently as the OP has done here

People should learn that when they are investing gifts, it should be INVESTED wisely for their desired returns.

Are you an Ijebukiti girl?

ifyalways:
@Fellows and agbalagbas,one finger for all of u.

Is that the middle finger?

that "mundane monlogue" might be better than the "killer silence treatement" in which a man just says nothing irrespective of what he thinks his wife has done wrong. That, to me, is worse than the one who complains. At least, he communicates with you enough to moan.

@ Sauron,

with all due respect, you really believe that being branded racists is the determination that they are harmless?

Terrorists are classed as such, yet you and I know what we go through at airports just because of the fact that everyone knows they are dangerous. We are ignoring the BNP and all such racist organisations at our own peril.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8090761.stm

US urges quick return to Mid-East talks

The issue of Jewish settlements built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war is one of the most contentious for the talks


US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has urged a swift return to peace talks on his first day of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

"We all share an obligation to create the conditions for the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations," he said in Jerusalem.

US relations with Israel are said to be tense since President Barack Obama's speech to Muslims in Cairo last week.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure to back a two-state solution.

Israeli outposters vow to stay
Due to give a major address on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu spoke to Mr Obama by telephone on Monday, in a conversation described by his office as positive.

He began talks with Mr Mitchell on Tuesday after the US envoy had meetings with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

President Obama seems to hope he can achieve a historic Middle East settlement within his first term and this ambitious goal puts him on a collision course with Mr Netanyahu's government, BBC Middle East correspondent Paul Wood reports from Jerusalem.

Meetings are planned with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Wednesday.

Mr Mitchell will then head to Lebanon before visiting Syria on Friday and Saturday as part of increased diplomatic engagement by the Obama government with Damascus.

'Close allies and friends'

Meeting Mr Peres, the US envoy stressed the bond between America and Israel.

"Let me be clear," he said. "These are not disagreements among adversaries. The United States and Israel are and will remain close allies and friends."

But he also reaffirmed Washington's commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state "side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel".

Mr Peres, whose post is largely ceremonial, said it was time "to take the bull by the horns" and pursue "a state for us and state for the Palestinians".

Few details of Mr Mitchell's talks with Mr Barak were given but the Israeli defence minister's office said they had discussed the question of settlement construction.

Speaking before his meeting with the US envoy, Foreign Minister Lieberman told a parliamentary committee that he welcomed US efforts to promote peace.

"We definitely give our blessing to the American approach as a regional one, and to the attempt to reach an agreement not only with the Palestinians, but to reach a regional balance where everyone understands that there is a need to co-operate, [at least] with the constructive powers in the area," he said.

He also warned once again of the danger of Iran developing nuclear weapons: "If - God forbid - Iran obtains a nuclear military capability, the entire region, with all that this entails, will enter into a crazy nuclear arms race, with all the repercussions that need not be said."

Netanyahu's vision

Mr Netanyahu has yet to publicly commit himself to a two-state solution.

Some see this as a negotiating ploy, but Mr Netanyahu speaks privately of allowing Palestinians self-rule while giving them something less than full statehood, our correspondent says.

Under Mr Netanyahu's vision of an economic peace, for instance, the Palestinians would not control either their borders or their airspace.

The immediate clash, however, will come over the issue of Jewish settlements built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, our correspondent says.

Mr Obama has said more clearly than any US president for a long time that settlement building must stop, while Mr Netanyahu is sticking to the established Israeli formula that there should be "natural growth" in existing settlements.
The US remains committed to maintaining Israel's security - just not to defending its gains since 1967, our correspondent says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8106580.stm

Israel and US row on settlements

Hillary Clinton: "We want to see a stop to the settlements"

Senior Israeli and the US officials have disagreed in public over Israeli settlement building in the West Bank.

On a visit to Washington, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said again that Israel could not accept a complete freeze on settlements.

Standing next to him, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated that the US wanted a complete halt.

She went on to say that Israeli leaders had often in the past staked out positions that had changed over time.

"We want to see a stop to the settlements. We think that is an important and essential part of pursuing the efforts leading to a comprehensive peace agreement and the creation of a Palestinian state next to an Israeli Jewish state that is secure in its borders," Mrs Clinton said.

Mr Lieberman insisted that "natural growth" - settlement construction with in the boundaries of existing settlements - would continue despite specific US calls for this to end.

"We really don't have any intention to change the demographic balance in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]," he said.

"We think that in every place around the world babies are born, people get married, some pass away and we cannot accept this vision about absolutely, completely freezing settlements."

On Sunday, after weeks of heavy US pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly supported a Palestinian state under certain conditions.

He insisted however, that natural growth at settlements would continue.

All settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law. More than 450,000 Jews are living in the West Bank.

Although I dont have the time to find every detail with regards to occupied Palestinian land, I will endeavour to find a few and show them. I dont tend to keep a library of everything I read.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8101110.stm

Settler vineyards take root in West Bank


The settlers say they are heirs of a tradition going back for millennia


Tim Franks
BBC News, Jerusalem


The climate is perfect, the soil just right, the grapes just so. But the occupied West Bank is not obvious wine country.

The growing number of vineyards are punctuated by checkpoints and watchtowers, as well as Palestinian towns and Israeli settlements.

This is land which Israel conquered 42 years ago. But the Jews who have settled the West Bank will tell you their roots in this land lie much deeper.

Yaakov Berg's winery is deemed to be illegal under international law
Yaakov Berg, a fresh-faced wine enthusiast in his 30s, lives in a small shack in the hilltop settlement of Psagot, which abuts the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

In a nearby cave is what Mr Berg proudly says is a 2,000-year-old wine press, proof of the Jews' ancient presence here.

He dances a little jig on the old round stone, to demonstrate how the grapes were once crushed. A short drive away lies his own winery. Opened only a few weeks ago, it is the swankiest in the West Bank.

"The wine is the main thing," he said, amid a tower of oak barrels. "But also we think it's very important to explain to people: listen, we are here, back. And part of that is that we work the land again."

Settlement of occupied territory is illegal under international law.

But the Settlers' Council has grand plans for the Psagot winery. The Council is talking about building as many as 20 holiday homes around the winery.

Wine-making, the Council's General Secretary, Pinchas Wallerstein, says, "is some kind of new development, a new way to settle people in the area, even more permanently than mobile houses".

Those mobile houses are sprinkled throughout the West Bank. Many of them are at what the Israelis call outposts - smaller, newer settlements that are unauthorised by the government.

One of the outposts, Rehelim, is home to another boutique winery.

Erez Ben Saadon labels and stories his Tura wine in a small, strip-lit concrete shed.

His vineyards lie in majestic undulating sweeps at a settlement nearby.

Passionate about his job, he kisses the budding grapes in an emotional flourish. And his passion extends to his view of US President Barack Obama's demand that settlement activity stop.

"We're a democratic state," he says. "The only democratic state in the Middle East. And I think the most un-democratic thing happening today is the American administration trying to force us into doing things that go against our own election results."

A couple of hours drive away, the salons of Tel Aviv are a world apart, the traditional home of Israel's trendy lefties.

But on a swish roof terrace, at an evening tasting for Erez Ben Saadon's wine, the praise gushes.

Experts say consumers do care whether their wine comes from the West Bank
"The Merlot is excellent," says Shai Segev, wine critic for the Yediot Ahranot newspaper.

Mr Segev says its provenance is unimportant as "wine and politics don't mix".

But Israel's leading wine critic, Daniel Rogov, says there are domestic and overseas consumers who "simply won't" buy the wine because it comes from the occupied West Bank.

In contrast, he says, there are others who lean more towards the "right-wing, Orthodox Jewish side, who will hunt out these wines precisely because they come from there".

Mr Rogov describes himself as a "peacenik". He refuses to travel to the West Bank, but will review its wine, if it is brought to him inside Israel. Year on year, he says, the wine from the occupied territories is not just increasing in quality, but quantity.

The scale of the project is evident as you drive around the West Bank past hill-sides marked with newly cleared swathes of land. By the settlement of Har Beracha, 10 hectares are due to be planted with vineyards within the next two months.

As Shivi Dror, another West Bank winemaker, put it: "When we take over 100 dunams (10 hectares) of land with a single vineyard, it's the same amount of land that 200 houses would cover."

But the neighbouring Palestinian villages say some of the vineyards are being planted on land that is theirs, not just in the sense that it should be part of a Palestinian state, but because they privately own it.

Ibrahim Shabana owns a grocery store in the village of Sinjel. He says settlers are growing grapes on land which has been in his family for more than 100 years.

All that is left for him are a few, straggly vines of his own, on a small, uneven field. "I feel hopeless," he says. He says that he cannot fight the settlers, for fear of violence or arrest by the police, "while the settlers get off free".

For their part, settlers argue that claims of intimidation or theft are often made by Palestinians and seldom proven.

The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has begun to track the spread of the vineyards. It says the settlers' insistence that they are only planting vines on state-owned land is simply not true.

On a road overlooking the West Bank vineyards close to the settlement of Shilo, the group's energetic Land Projects Coordinator, Dror Etkes, unfurls a map on the baking hot bonnet of his car.

It is, he says, just one illustration of how vineyards take over land beyond what even Israel says are the authorised boundaries of the settlements, across privately owned Palestinian land.

In a statement, the Civil Administration, the Israeli authority which oversees the West Bank, confirmed that the information on the map is correct.

Mr Etkes says that dealing with this issue should be a matter for the Israeli authorities, not the American administration.

The scene in front of us, he says, shows how the Israeli government has given a "free ticket" to Israeli settlers to "take as much land as possible in order to Judaise the maximum part of the West Bank".

President Obama has warned that the cost of the settlement enterprise is about to rise. In the meantime, the ambition and spread of the West Bank winemakers continues to grow.

I think perhaps if Israel did not occupy any Palestinian land, then I will support Israel to clear the whole of Palestine for daring to attack them. BUT you cant take some people's land and accuse them of not folding their hands to watch as you brutally clear them off.

As much as Pastor Adeboye always come across (to me) as a humble man in his physical demeanour, I dont think I'd rate him higher than Pastor Tunde Bakare if I was to vote for a Pastoral legend.

Tunde Bakare has spoken out for good or for evil, based on his convictions, against leaders without fear or favour. . . Adeboye has never been able to do so. That Tunde Bakare actually refused the offer of a presidential lunch/dinner sometime ago made him tick another of my boxes.

There are also other unknown ones (I believe so).

Kanu also did very well to set up a foundation (VERY UNSELFISHLY) for heart diseases - this unselfish attitude seems to be very uncommon among many Nigerians

debosky:
So what exactly do you propose people do about BNP's win?

Their 'popularity' at the moment is due to the recession, it will tail away once economic activity picks up again - I don't really understand what you are advocating.

Personally, I'm not worried about the BNP getting violent. If they do, all blacks need to do is organise the ready army of stabbers from East/South London to fight on their behalf.

No doubt that the popularity is mainly due to the present economic hardships. however, there will be some/many who will be inclined to stay that way after having been brainwashed during such a period. . .especially when such parties are given reasonable platforms to get themselves popular.

This all started a few years ago when BNP won a seat in Burnley council. . . I remember telling people that it was a bad signal. Now, they have lots of seats.

B T W, those stabbers in London will be too drugged out to fight back

kolitos007:
Otter total Rubbish, they had the same number of votes they had last year, the only difference is that a lot of people that usually vote for labour didn't vote this year and they didn't want to vote for any other party thats why, don't just come and start talking rubbish please enough with this BNP thing, this is Nairaland, talk about all things Nigeria please, its doing my head in.

You will do well to avoid throwing insults that are needless.

I dont see how I compelled you to react to my thoughts, so if you are unable to do it without throwing insults, please ignore my posts. Thank you

mikeansy:
The man in interior ministry who leaked the true result showing that Ahmedinajad actually came third has since died in questionable circumstances.

I've not seen this report. Do you have a link to it? So far, I have not been able to find a report stating with proof that the elections were rigged. . . that is why I am sceptical about the hoopla being created by the media.

Just for the benefit of those who think that there is nothing to think about with BNP winning 2 seats, they actually had about a million votes in an election in which total number of votes cast was just over 15million.

Just wait till the next election.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/elections/euro/09/html/ukregion_999999.stm

One of the things we do best is to always believe that nothing is going wrong. . . till we find ourselves in the gutters.