Saturday, June 10, 2023

Priorities?

An international tribunal has found Iraq’s central bank was to blame for a contractual dispute with an engineering firm that led to the jailing of Australian engineer Robert Pether, prompting his family to make a renewed plea that he be freed from the Baghdad prison cell where he has spent two years.

Pether and his colleague Khalid Radwan were arrested and jailed in 2021 over a contractual dispute between their employer, Cardno ME (CME), and the Central Bank of Iraq, which had hired the firm to help build its new Baghdad headquarters.

[. . .]

A recently published decision reveals the contractual dispute at the heart of their arrest was taken to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)’s International Court of Arbitration, which ruled in February in favour of CME. The decision found the bank was in breach of its contract with CME and ordered that it pay the engineering firm US$13m, which covers the outstanding invoices, compensation, legal costs, and the release of a performance bond provided by CME.

The decision has only just been made public.

The above is from Christopher Knaus' "Iraq’s central bank to blame for dispute behind jailing of Australian Robert Pether, tribunal finds" (GUARDIAN).  Robert Pether has been held since 2021 but, hey, do another 'news' post on Roger Waters.

I've got nothing against entertainment news.  I just don't see the news value in tired Roger Waters and his now deleted Tweet/interview/Germany won't let him perform/Germany let him perform but now they're saying he did something Nazi on stage/Brazil will have the cops at his concert/blah blah blah.  It's interesting, isn't it, how it's always White people that are left and 'left' choose to elevate.  


A Tweet got deleted! An interview with a White person!  This is the end of the world!  Oh! Oh!


 

Give me a break.  In fact, "Gimmie A Break."



Give me a damn break.


The Roger Water obsession?  It goes straight to the crap of the whiners who hiss "Identity Politics!"  They could be noting anything in the world but it's a White guy and they're a White world.  And they wonder why they aren't received by communities of color.



 

Again, priorities.  

In other news, Radwan Mortada (THE CRADLE) writes:

Adil Abdul-Mahdi, prime minister of Iraq from October 2018 to May 2020, emerged as a significant figure during one of the most tumultuous periods in the country’s recent history.

Caught between navigating relations with Washington and Tehran, and a worsening economic crisis, he ultimately resigned in the face of popular protests and the state’s violent crackdown.

In a rare media interview with The Cradle, Abdul-Mahdi candidly discloses details of those harrowing days and the foreign interests – particularly American and British – that played a hand in the chaos, terrorism, sectarianism, and economic dependencies that continue to beset Iraq today.

Abdul-Mahdi reveals the attempts of US President Donald Trump’s administration to create a new reality in Iraq, unlike its predecessors, to further destabilize Iraq by turning it into a base against Iran and tightening the sanctions noose on Baghdad.

The western anti-ISIS coalition, he says, only aimed to strike a balance between the terror group and those fighting against them under the guise of ‘counter terrorism’ – so that there would be no clear winner.

His downfall was not so much the 2019 October Revolution that led to his resignation, but his refusal to take hostile stances against Iran and the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) that defeated ISIS. The US did not like these positions, and Abdul-Mahdi enumerates a series of situations in which he came head to head with Washington, and reveals the role of Qassem Soleimani in Iraq’s victory against terrorism.


Here's an except:

 

The Cradle: Where did this all start? What is your assessment of Paul Bremer’s leadership as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, where he was effectively Iraq’s de facto head of state? To what extent is Iraq still grappling with the consequences of his actions during that period?

Abdul-Mahdi: Bremer represents the pinnacle of American arrogance. When White House Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad organized the first meeting of Iraqi leaders after the ouster of Saddam Hussein’s regime, he assured the delegates that the US has absolutely no interest in ruling Iraq, and an agreement was reached with the Iraqi opposition parties to form a transitional government.

Bremer halted this process. During his first meeting with Iraqi leaders to present Washington’s expectations of the civil administration he would lead, he addressed everyone, saying:

“We only need you as advisors. We will build the state, and your role is to help us.”

All those present, Massed Barzani, Jalal Talabani, Ahmad Chalabi, Ayad Allawi, and us, considered this as an unacceptable foreign occupation. However, Bremer imposed his opinion by force and began issuing legislation and laws called Bremer’s decisions – all in all, 111 pieces of Iraqi legislation that still affect the Central Bank, ministries, and others.

Bremer was very arrogant and believed that he was able to subjugate the country, and he wanted to impose a system of elite elections as in the US, and not general elections for all the Iraqi people. However, Ayatollah Ali Sistani refused and insisted that writing the constitution be left to Iraqis voted in through an elected national assembly.

The Cradle: What led to the outbreak of sectarian conflicts in Iraq, and was the US involved in them?

Abdul-Mahdi: Of course the Americans were involved. The US prefers to weaken everyone in order to control them. Speaking of sectarian war, we must go back to those who sparked sectarian strife in the beginning.

Al-Qaeda started the slaughter in Afghanistan before Iraq. The first major assassination targeted Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim in 2003, and this has significant meaning. The Iraqi sectarian war did not break out because the Shia gained more political clout in the state, but rather because there was a group that rejected this new reality and was materially and directly supported by foreign powers – American, British, and others.

They began to establish armed groups in the western regions, while the Americans were preventing the formation of popular committees in other regions under the pretext that they would turn into militias.

The Cradle: Do you have information about an American role in supporting Al-Qaeda in Iraq?

Abdul-Mahdi: I will not give a simple answer. Before 2011, the international coalition, including the Americans, fought against terrorism. But eradicating this terrorism completely was not on their agenda.

This is happening today in Syria, for example, where we see sometimes the Americans targeting leaders in Al-Qaeda and ISIS, but without any effort to eliminate these organizations completely, and thus they establish a kind of balance between the terrorists and their enemies. This is evident in Syria and elsewhere.


Meanwhile in budget news, RUDAW reports:


An agreement has been reached over a controversial paragraph in the federal budget bill that relates to the Kurdistan Region, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) delegation in Baghdad said on Saturday.

The Iraqi parliament has been convening since Thursday to vote on the bill, but disputes over items related to the Kurdistan Region have caused delays. Six articles were passed on Thursday and another 18 in a Friday night session that extended into early Saturday morning.

“An agreement has been reached over paragraph seven of Article 14,” Fuad Hussein, head of the KDP delegation said. He did not specify details of the agreement, but added that he believes the remaining issues related to the Kurdistan Region will also be resolved on Saturday.





The following sites updated:




Who’s The Least Destructive GOP Candidate? | Leftist Mafia

"Anti-Woke" Republican DEFENDS His Trans Son | The Kyle Kulinski Show

Debbie Gibson - Love Don't Care (Official Music Video)

 

Tyler Perry, Karen Hunter, and The Mantan Manifesto

 


SEE THE FULL SHOW: https://youtube.com/live/Jmzne0dYdd4 FIND OUR MANTAN MANIFESTO PAPER HERE: https://morgan.academia.edu/JaredBall BarterBuild Think Tank    / @barterbuildthink...   Diallo Kenyatta    / diallokenyatta   Jared A. Ball is a Professor of Communication and Africana Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. and author of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power (Palgrave, 2020, 2nd Edition Coming Spring 2023). Ball is also host of the podcast “iMiXWHATiLiKE!”, co-founder of Black Power Media which can be found at BlackPowerMedia.org, and his decades of journalism, media, writing, and political work can be found at http://www.imixwhatilike.org





Beyoncé To Oprah: There’s A Time And Place For Cameras | Oprah’s Next Chapter | OWN

Roberta Flack - Jesse

Diana Ross - Workin' Overtime

Marjorie Greene Blames Wildfire Smoke On Canada For All The Wrong Reasons

Janelle Monáe: 'The Age of Pleasure', A.I., & Freedom | Apple Music

The Trump Indictment | Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts Podcast

Cop City and the Black Elite

Farewell to Pat Robertson, Enemy of Gays and Friend of Warlords

Diana Ross sing’s hit’s from Motown day’s and Lady sings the blues at Louisville Palace 🎭🎷🎶

Right Wing Activists Gets Pride Volunteers Arrested While Running Chat That Calls For Mass Shooting

Jay Ellis Reopens a 50-Year-Old Case of 7 Murdered Black Girls With New Podcast

Lauren - At the altar - The Catherine Tate Show - BBC comedy

Country Star Maren Morris Appears On 'Billboard' Dressed As Willie Nelson With RuPaul Stars To Prote

Transgender trailblazers reflect on the history of representation | Soul of a Nation

 

New Issue of The Black Commentator - Issue 959 June 8, 2023

 The Black Commentator Issue #959 is now Online

June 8, 2023



Read issue 959

Our email address is BlackCommentator@gmail.com

Our voicemail number is 856.823.1739

"If this is okay, why isn't that?"

WTF Podcast - Smokey Robinson

Diana Ross /The Boss The ultimate dance album and a bit of shade for Cher !

MILLIONS of Trump Supporters Promise Violence to Restore Trump

Biden’s Debt Ceiling “Deception” Slammed By David Sirota

Friday, June 09, 2023

White Creators, Accountability and Using the N Word in a non-racist way

 

World Oceans Day: Explore the Sounds of the Sea

 

Bioneers Pulse – updates from the Bioneers Community

Bioneer, 

In Jacques Cousteau’s words, ours is a “water planet,” one where seas cover 71% of the terrestrial surface, play the key role in regulating the climate and maintaining a breathable atmosphere, and provide a major source of nutrition to billions of people. And yet we know less about many aspects of marine life and the dynamics of how ocean currents and chemistry impact life on Earth than we do about much of the Solar System. Given how badly our species has treated the ocean and its creatures, at great risk to our own survival and wellbeing, it is critical that humanity mobilize itself to understand and protect this most vital of all ecosystems.

In that spirit, we invite you all to celebrate World Oceans Day by hearing from some leading activists and brilliantly innovative researchers who have devoted their lives to studying and defending our “water planet."

Share the news

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Marine Mammal Conservation & How Activists Saved the Dolphins

The extreme ill effects of human activity in the ocean have been documented for decades. From irresponsible fishing techniques and oil spills to plastic pollution and global warming, the havoc humanity has brought to marine life has threatened entire species. How can we turn the tide and begin to protect what we have previously harmed? 

Dave Phillips is a Co-Founder of the Earth Island Institute and Director of its International Marine Mammal Project. In this conversation, Dave discusses the ways in which he’s seen and participated in marine conservation initiatives that have saved the lives of millions of animals, and he addresses the work that still must be done.

Read the Conversation

The High Seas Treaty: 2 Expert Perspectives

After almost 20 years of negotiations, United Nations member countries have agreed upon an international treaty to protect oceans that lie outside national borders. This “High Seas Treaty,” which took substantive steps toward adoption on March 4, 2023, is being heralded as making enormous progress toward protecting marine life, if it is credibly enforced. Conservation experts and ocean activists Rod Fujita and Dave Phillips share their reactions to and concerns about the treaty.

Read More

Save the Date for Bioneers 2024!

Mark your calendars for March 28-30, 2024! Bioneers is coming back to Berkeley for our 35th annual conference. More information and early registration access is coming soon.

Sign Up for Conference Alerts

Protecting Our Life Support System: Challenges and Opportunities in Marine Conservation

World-renowned National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala launched the National Geographic Pristine Seas project in 2008 to explore and help inspire the protection of the last wild places in the ocean, an absolutely critical last-ditch effort to prevent the complete unraveling of global marine ecosystems. Made up of an extraordinary team of scientists, conservationists, filmmakers and policy experts, Pristine Seas has helped protect 6 million square kilometers of ocean habitat. Partnering with 122 different organizations and agencies across 23 countries, its work has inspired the establishment of some of the largest marine reserves in the world. In this presentation, Enric discusses the vital importance of healthy oceans to humanity’s future and what Pristine Seas hopes to accomplish in the years ahead.

Watch Enric Sala’s Presentation

Unlocking the Cultural Secrets of Sperm Whales with Shane Gero

Whale researcher Shane Gero shares his experiences studying sperm whales and emphasizes how fundamentally similar their lives are to our own and how their cultures define their identity. Shane explores the influence of culture in shaping individuals and societies, highlighting the role of language and cultural norms in both human and animal interactions. He advocates for a shift in wildlife conservation, urging humans to include cultural diversity as an essential component of biodiversity and to learn from whales' powerful sense of community.

Read More

Underwater Soundscapes: What Can We Learn by Listening? Meet GLUBS

The Global Library of Underwater Sounds (GLUBS) is an exciting new project being developed to create a library of underwater soundscapes. According to Audrey Looby, one of the co-authors, the project has the potential to transform what we know about our underwater world and has profound implications for conservation, restoration and our understanding of our fellow water-dwelling animal kin.

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The Guardian | Listen to a Toadfish Grunt! AI Helps Decode a ‘Symphony’ of Ocean Sounds

In a major breakthrough, scientists are using algorithms to identify the clicks, calls and bleeps of marine life, as part of a 10-year project mapping noise under the sea.

Listen Here

Living Systems Leadership Retreat for Women

The call of our time is for women to step forward to lead in new ways, embodying approaches that are adaptive, resilient, collaborative, and networked – practices that the natural world has masterfully evolved over nearly 4 billion years. With nature as your teacher, Biomimicry for Social Innovation is inviting women to explore the mountains, grasslands, and organisms of northern New Mexico, learning skills to connect with nature and translate strategies from the natural world into transformative leadership practices. This retreat is for people of all ages and backgrounds who identify as female or as non-binary, including a wide realm of gender expression. Registration closes June 15th.

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