The Impudent Observer - Global Liberal Issues Analyzes issues of liberal concern and gives readers a digest of what is reported in over forty newspapers throughout the world to engage them in critical thinking issues. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 59 8752

Articles from The Impudent Observer - Global Liberal Issues

Why One Wears A Hijab And Why One Does Not 2007-12-15 08:43:27 Two Canadian Muslim girls told a reporter for the Toronto Star why one will wear the hijab and why the other prefers not to. Asmaa Abou Zeidan, age sixteen, is very careful about her dress and will not wear clothes that her mother believes are inappropriate for a Muslim. “She thinks everything I own is too tight. That is not the way a Muslim girl is supposed to dress. You’re supposed to be modest,” she says. Her parents, however, accord her considerable freedom and she is allowed to associate with anyone she desires. She has decided to wear the hijab of her own accord. “I like the way people treated m e when I wore it. I get more respect.” However, sometimes at night she goes down to the swimming pool in her apartment building, and when no one is around, plunges into the water and enjoys the feeling as water soaks into her bare head. Zahraa El-Zalbak hangs around with a diverse group of girls at school, and often is asked why she does not wear the hijab. ...

Hamas Warns Israel Of Resistance In Gaza 2007-12-15 08:26:20 The war of words in the Middle East escalated as leaders of Hamas told cheering crowds in the Gaza Strip that Israel would meet a defeat if its troops invaded the Gaza Strip. “The IDF’s withdrawal,” said Hamas leader Mushair al Masri, “from the Gaza Strip will become a graveyard for its troops.” Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh attacked any nation or group which supports the existence of Israel as an insult to Allah and boasted he was ready to lead a third of fourth intifada against Israel. In the meantime, Israel leaders were warning any invasion of the Gaza Strip must not result in damage to the authority of the Fatah led government of President Abbas. It is relatively easy for Hamas leaders to boast and promise death and destruction, the only problem is that an Israel invasion of Gaza will result in death and destruction to many people, including hundreds of Palestinians. Hamas is long on rhetoric and short on offering positive solutions to problems besett ...

European Parliament Condemns Japan For WWII Atrocities 2007-12-15 08:01:47 The European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Japan for its WWII programs of brutalizing and enslaving women to serve as “comfort women” for members of Japanese armed forces. The resolution calls upon Japan to finally admit its inhumane treatment of women and to pay restitution for the survivors. It is estimated at least 200,000 women from Korea, China and the Philippines were forced to serve as sex slaves to the Japanese armed forces. Sixty years have passed and women are still waiting for Japan to acknowledge its mistakes, accept responsibility, and pay restitution for its actions. Unlike, Germany, the Japanese government refuses to acknowledge what was done nor have the Japanese made certain schools teach an honest version of the past. Instead, Japan’s schoolchildren receive a version of World War II in which their nation was the innocent victim of the United States and Great Britain. The resolution comes on the hells of a new Japanese film which complete ...

Confronting Global Warming Without Living In Log Cabins 2007-12-14 18:19:01 I have been accused of being one of those liberal touchy-feely characters because I support government action to confront global warming. Critics charge if anything is done to deal with the energy crisis it means we will be forced to live in log cabins and use candle power. So, here are a few suggestions to avoid living in log cabins. 1. A massive Marshall Plan(in 1948, the American Marshall Plan helped devastated European nations recover) to dramatically improve mass transportation systems in large cities. For example, in the New York City area have suburban train systems, like the Long Island Railroad, run trains every ten minutes. Subsidize train fares. After all, we subsidize farmers. 2. A high speed train system crisscrossing the nation. Subsidized fares. 3. Require all cars to have at least 40 mpg. Allow five years for those with cars not matching that standard to get rid of their car. 4. Since trucks get lower mpg, fund a research program to improve truck fuel efficiency. ...

Political Slime Wars Result In Clinton Apology 2007-12-14 14:08:33 Senator Hillary Clinton encountered Senator Barack Obama at a Washington D.C. airport and extended her apology for the uncalled for comments by an assistant in her campaign who implied the Illinois senator might have ben engaged in drug dealings earlier in life. Bill Shaheen, a Clinton campaign co-chairman, has said that since much of Senator Obama’s background was murky it might lead Republicans in a fall campaign to imply that he had a wayward youth that probably included drug dealings. “There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks,. It’s hard to overcome,” he told The Washington Post. Mr. Shaheen apologized for his remarks and then resigned his position. I really don’t know why Mr. Shaheen resigned, everyone knows that African Americans spend their youth dealing drugs just like Jewish children are youthful bankers, and Irish kids like Shaheen can’t stop guzzling down beer and whiskey in their wayward childhood. The tragedy of his commen ...

Chinese Furious At Japanese Denial Of Wartime Massacre! 2007-12-14 13:45:12 To the world of the 1930s, Japan’s brutal policies in China during which millions were killed, were most prominently highlighted by the infamous “Rape of Nanking.” A Japanese nationalist film has been produced entitled, “The Truth About Nanking” which endeavors to argue that no such incident ever occurred. According to director, Satoru Mzushima,”there is one indisputable fact there was no massacre at nanking. We don’t want our children to grow up thinking Japan is a barbarous country.” There is overwhelming eye witness plus documentary evidence that about 300,000 people died in Nanking including the raping of thousands of Chinese women by Japanese soldiers. There is a remarkable difference in the approach to war time crimes between Germany and Japan. The German government and people have confronted the reality of what happened during the rule of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party including the death of six million Jews as well as millions o ...

Turkey Angry At European Union Hesitations 2007-12-14 13:24:04 The Turkish government is increasingly upset at statements by President Sarkozy of France which offer alternatives to a Turkish entry into the European Union and to failure on the part of EU officials to move forward their nation’s application for membership. Prime Minister Erdogan bluntly informed the French leader his behavior was two-faced, he talks one way when in Turkey, but before another audience the message is a negative one about entry into the European Union. “Sarkozy approaches us differently during our bilateral talks and backbites elsewhere.” To Ankara’s dislike, an EU foreign ministers’ statement on the bloc’s enlargement strategy omitted Monday the words “accession” and”membership” in connection with Turkey, a development brought about due to French pressure. French diplomats claim changes in wording are of minor importance and is not meant to imply rejection of the Turkish application. The Turkish government i ...

An Inconvenient Truth-World Can’t Wait For Bush 2007-12-14 08:13:39 Former Vice President Al Gore expressed a powerful message to Americans and the world in a speech by blasting President Bush for procrastination and obstruction in the fight to end global warming. “I am not an official of the United States and I am not bound by the diplomatic niceties. So, I am going to speak an inconvenient truth. My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali. We all know that. Bu, my country is not the only one that can take such steps to ensure that we move forward from Bali with progress and with hope.” Gore’s message was to place the future of this planet before all other considerations and to ensure that children in the coming years are able to enjoy life in a world that has confronted its most important issue– how to maintain a viable living situation without endangering the safety of this precious planet. Gored said it correctly, “We ought to feel a sense of joy that we have wor ...

A German View Of America– A Depressed Nation! 2007-12-14 01:17:22 Gabor Stengart, writing in Der Spiegel offered an insightful perspective on the state of America from a foreign viewpoint. “All it takes to find out why America is in such a bad mood,” he writes, “is to look at the local section of any American newspaper, at the photos of the smiling faces of soldier s killed in iraq.” He met with the mayor of Washington D.C. who was so proud that school children in his district received their textbooks at the beginning of the term rather in mid point in the year. Stengart visited a local supermarket and was struck by how many products indicated they were made in other countries rather than in the United States, a vast difference from earlier years in America. He recalled a time in American history when Gary, Indiana had the largest steel mill in the world, but today foreign products are the ones purchased, not manufactured in this country. “Demographers paint a picture of a somewhat melancholic acutely dissatisfied and to ... America

Moroccan Islamists Demand Homosexuals Be In Jail 2007-12-14 01:09:38 A Morocco court sentenced six men to jail terms ranging from four to ten months for allegedly engaging in homosexual acts. They were charged with violating Article 489 which criminalizes, “lewd or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex.” Sarah Leah Whitson of the Human Rights Watch attacked the decision because “these men are behind bars for private acts between consenting adults that no government has any business criminalizing in the first place…The men’s rights to privacy and freedom of expression have been violated and the court has convicted them without apparent evidence.” The arrest stemmed from a video that appeared on YouTube purporting to show a private party that supposedly was celebrating a “gay marriage.” Following the arrests of the men, hundreds of men and women stormed through Ksar el-Kbir demanding punishment of the men. The mob looted a jewelry store owned by one of the defendants and trashed the house of an ...

Record Suicide Rate Among Soldiers This Year 2007-12-14 01:03:11 A record number of soldiers have killed themselves this year–109–according to Army statistics. The sharp rise in the number of suicides is partially attributed to longer deployments which create additional stress upon individuals and families. The highest previous number of Army suicides since 1990 was in 1992– a period when the army was twenty percent larger in size. A total of 109 suicides would equal a rate of 18.4 per 100,000, the highest since the army began counting in 1980. The civilian rate was 11 per 100,000 in 2004. Senator Pat Murray, noted, “I’m surprised at the suicide increase. But when we’re not doing everything we can to deal with mental health, when we know the Army is under such stress, it’s not a surprise. It has to be a wake up call.” There have been repeated complaints from a variety of mental health, political, and social groups concerning the enormous stress being placed on fighting men and women who serve two or th ...

Bush/Rice–Be Tough Or Be Positive With North Korea? 2007-12-13 16:16:50 Secretary of State Rice took a firm stand on how the United States should deal with the North Korean government. She stated the Pyongang regime is not one the “United States is prepared to engage broadly.” and is running out of time to present a complete list by December 31 of all nuclear programs in the country. “It remains,” said Rice, “a country that is dangerously armed and a considerable threat on both the proliferation front and its own program.”However, the North Korean government is offering a view in which they are working closely with the United States and hope all problems are over between the two nations. Republican senators, Brownback, Kyl, Grassley, and independent Joseph Liberman urged Rice to take a tough stand and demand preconditions prior to engaging in further discussions. However, Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer urged that “whatever has occurred in the past is not occurring now,” and negotiators should focus on the ...

Egyptian Government Arrests College Students 2007-12-13 13:48:07 More than two thousand students at Al-Azahar University in Cairo protested the arrest of eleven students who are member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Students complained of interference in their rights by security guards and urged the end of students being searched when they entered university grounds.Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a student complained; “This escalation in the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood has worrying implications for anyone who peacefully campaigns for change.” University authorities insisted the government was merely trying to protect students from those who preach violence. There are several issues entailed in the efforts by students to ensure their rights against government actions. The Muslim Brotherhood has been condemned as a violent organization without due process proceedings. Egyptian university students wish to be accorded their rights to belong to organizations in order to fight for democracy in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood in the past has engaged i ...

Al Gore Denounces Bush Administration Climate Obstruction 2007-12-13 11:11:44 Nobel laureate, Al Gore, accused the United States of blocking progress at the UN climate conference. He urged delegates to take strong measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases which are a major source of greenhouse gases. He bluntly told the audience, “My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali.” Kristen Hellmer, a member of the american delegation responded with “the U.S. is being open and working very constructively with other countries that are here. We are rolling our sleeves up and really working to come up with a global post-2012 framework.” The United States, Japan and several other nations are refusing to accept the language in a draft document that seeks a 25%-40% reduction in emissions by 2020. European nations are threatening to boycott a Bush climate meeting next month in Washington unless the United States compromises on its negative stand for compulsory and specific goals for reduct ...

Libyan Leader Complains About Thailand Anti-Muslim Actions 2007-12-13 10:55:44 Saif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi, was among those who trained Muslim insurgents in the 1970s to engage in war in order to gain independence from the Buddhist Thailand government. On a recent trip to Thailand, he expressed his concerns about the government of Thailand’s policies in southern regions of their nation which contain a large number of Muslims. It is the only area of the Buddhist Thailand in which Muslims are a significant proportion of the population, constituting 80% of all people. Gadhafi’s son said he was visiting areas in Asia where there are Muslim insurgent groups in order to assist efforts to reach peaceful solutions to their grievances. His next stop is a visit to the Philippines where he will meet with the Muslim separatist group, the Moro islamic Liberation Front. The visit of Saif al-Islam can be a productive one if it results in halting funding of Muslim terrorist groups or getting them to sit down and negotiate instead of using vi ... Thailand